Elsa's in Heat
by WorthlessFandomFeelings
Summary: Elsa's unrequited love, and lust, for Anna brings about threatening weather conditions. Faced with no other choice, Anna must relieve Elsa to save Arendelle - Canon, Elsanna, brief ElsaxOther, incest, noncon, angst, prompt
1. Prologue

**Original Prompt:**

**"are there any fics out there that take a dynamic like that further? Like where Anna and Elsa basically find out that Elsa is in crazy lust with Anna and the only way to stop the whole country from freezing to death is if Anna gets her off every so often even though Elsa knows she doesn't want to? Also bonus points if Anna's super accommodating about it and Elsa just angsts the fuck out more and more as time goes on because she hates herself and what Anna has to do."**

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><p>Anna raised her fist to the door.<p>

She pulled it back to knock.

She let her arm twitch forward an inch and the world rang with the silence of indecision.

Anna brought her fist back again, hoping to reattempt the knock.

It twitched again.

The hallway remained silent. It remained silent and cold and dark.

Anna tried to still the shivering of the hand she had grasping the small oil-lamp. It had led her way through the many halls of the castle; relied upon even after all the years she'd lived there, given the infrequency at which she'd used to visit this particular corner of her home.

Nowadays, though, she'd worried it was looking to become common fare.

Anna sucked in a final breath; determined. She had to do this. She pulled back her arm and refused to let herself falter.

Her balled up hand struck the door, knocking a somber pattern that would have been shamed by the acoustic little ditty she had once concocted in her younger years.

_Knock. Knock. Knock._

What a painfully sad sound to echo through the darkness of the night.

Anna kept her fist against the door at the last knock, drawing in an apprehensive breath as she slumped against its surface.

At least some cheer might have found her at the thought that the room's occupant would respond on her first knock, for whatever reason that may have been given the circumstance.

And yet, for better or worse, nothing.

Anna let out a deep sigh, drawing herself back.

"Elsa," she tried keeping her voice low so as to not wake the whole castle, "come on, I know you're in there."

No response.

"Elsa, I...please... We can't just ignore this. Not again. It's already getting bad out there."

Nothing still. Anna took her hand from the door, wondering what was to be done then.

Then, the creak of a floorboard. The smell of frost coated flowers.

With the soft click of a lock, and the harder thunk of a latch, the door creaked inwards by a sliver. The creaks retreated.

Anna took a deep breath, summoning all her memories of who her sister was and the people they used to be to one another. Anna let the memory paint a tentative smile on her face as she began to let the breath back out, putting a hand to the door and pushing inwards.

Elsa stood in her shimmering blue dress of ice, far back from the entrance but still a fearful distance from the bed. Her arms clung protectively around her midriff with a nervous expression to match, as an actively worried lower lip underscored wide eyes. Eyes whose gaze immediately shot downwards as Anna entered the room.

Anna slipped into the room, taking care to shut the door behind her and engaging the lock before turning around and laying her lantern on a nearby desk, its light adding to the candlelit glow of the chamber.

"Hey," she uttered softly, the upward pull of her lips unfaltering as she strode towards the nervous woman in front of her.

She let Elsa's guilty gaze give a quick sweep up and back down her body, the meaning behind it old and the action itself older. Some things couldn't be helped, and she could hardly begrudge her sister that.

Could she?

"So...I suppose that it's...?" Elsa didn't have to finish the question.

"Yeah," Anna sighed. "It's been getting colder. I thought we could leave it longer but I saw some snow just now."

Elsa's arms wrapped tighter around her stomach, her face scrunched up as though in pain while Anna approached.

"Anna, I... I-"

"Ssshhh, hey," Anna whispered as she drew close to her sister, "don't worry. We knew it would come back."

Elsa drew in a shaky breath before nodding. "I'm so sorry," she whispered.

Anna stopped just before the blond, the two of them staring at different parts of the wall in Elsa's room. As usual, it was Anna who gathered her courage first.

"So uh, I guess we'll just do this like normal?"

Elsa's face scrunched up, but she nodded again regardless. Once again she was rooted in place.

Anna brushed her arm up Elsa's arm, letting it rest comfortingly atop her sister's right shoulder. "Elsa," she whispered, "it's alright. Deep breaths, right?"

One last nod.

"Okay Anna..." Elsa let herself be directed by the shoulder to the comfort of her mattresses. Anna released her quickly to slip around to the other side. As usual, she was the first to wind up on the bed, sending an encouraging smile Elsa's way that prompted the older girl to tentatively lay herself down beside Anna, straight as a board. After a brief pause, and a thick swallow, Elsa slowly drew her feet up and to the side, her legs spreading ever so slightly beneath her dress. Her chest was heaving.

Anna could never tell what Elsa's quick panting meant, between lust or fear. Experience had taught her to assume the worst.

"Hey," she again intoned as gently as she could, her right hand sliding over Elsa's cloaked belly in comforting circular patterns, "it's alright. I'm here for you, okay Elsa?"

Elsa's breath shuddered as she drew it in, stomach twitching against Anna's hand. "Yeah," she breathed, "yeah, okay."

"Alright," Anna smiled, sliding her other arm slowly under Elsa's shoulders, cradling her. "You're alright, just close your eyes, think of somewhere happy, okay?"

Elsa complied, drooping her lids and letting the slow circular pattern Anna rubbed on her stomach steady her heart as much as it could.

Anna let her hand continue tracing its circles for some time, listening to Elsa's breathing stabilize. Finally, her hand began to wander lower, ghosting over shivering muscles and then the hard ridge of Elsa's pubic bone and then-

Elsa gasped, her hips thrusting upwards into Anna's fingers before she remembered where she was and tensed up in shame.

"Oh god Anna," she half sobbed, "god why..."

Anna's left arm, the one beneath Elsa's shoulders, clutched protectively, drawing the queen into her warm embrace. "Don't worry Elsa, there's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm here for you, okay?"

Elsa snuggled against her, clenching her jaw against all the feelings within her except the incredible warmth of her sweet Anna beside her, with her beautiful, delicate hands roaming further and further down Elsa's body.

"Just relax; let me take care of it." Anna hoped Elsa didn't notice as her eyes scrunched shut and her hesitant fingers continued downwards, feeling the prominent contours of Elsa's swollen sex through her thin, cold dress.

Elsa's gasp tore out of her in pieces, like she was breathing in syllables.

Anna's hands quickly moved slightly further up where they found the small protrusion of sensitive flesh that had made her job so much easier. Anna steeled herself, then began circling Elsa's nub with a finger.

The queen's reaction was immediate. Another gasp that quickly became a poorly restrained moan. Her hands, previously clutched to her stomach, slamming down beside her to grip her own duvet. Her hips had already surrendered, jerking forward from the bed to meet Anna's touch.

Gods why did it have to feel so _good_? Elsa's own touch had never felt like this. The few women they had discretely brought in to attempt to satisfy her appetites had never been able to do this to her. What did Anna posses that could make Elsa buck and tense and groan and soar with pleasure the way she did?

"_Anna_!" Elsa managed to gasp as she fell into the slow rhythm of pleasure the redhead had incited.

But each outburst brought with it its own shock of guilt, it's own whisper of anguish. "Please forgive me Anna...oh gods I'm so, so sorry"

"Ssshhh," Anna advised, eyes squinting shut harder in hopes of sending herself away from the feeling of her sibling beginning to writhe beneath her fingers.

Elsa bit her lip as she lost control of her body, trying to contain the sounds of her ecstasy, but it was a lost cause. Her panting turned into short gasps for air as her hips bucked her sensitive core into her sister's dextrous fingers. Her beautiful sister. Elsa couldn't help the tear that rolled down her cheek.

That such beauty could be meant for her.

But wasn't.

"You're doing fine Elsa," Anna whispered against her hair. "Almost there, right?"

Elsa could only choke back a sob, nodding in agreement, her body betraying her more and more as Anna sent electric jolts of pleasure down between her legs.

Anna began to slide her finger up and down instead, trailing a path over the soaked patch of Elsa's gown she knew the sorceress particularly enjoyed. It hadn't taken her long to figure out what did and did not expedite the process, and she relished the promise of Elsa's groans and renewed writhing as her fingers slipped over the indent where the queen's opening would be.

Elsa clenched her jaw, trying to contain herself as her desperation reached a new peak. She felt Anna speed up, sensed her younger sibling could tell the end was approaching. She didn't want Anna to know how good she felt. She didn't want Anna to see the desire that flushed through her features.

Because it was so good and Anna was so beautiful and she was _so close_ and-

All the disgust and self pity Elsa felt evaporated. She thrust her hips up from the bed, her needy arch pressing her all the more firmly against Anna's incredible ministrations. She needed more, and she didn't care how desperate she seemed for it.

"Oh god Anna," she mewled, "oh god please...please-oh god I'm sorry, please don't stop..."

"I've got you," Anna promised, inwardly gritting her teeth at the repetitive strain developing in her wrist. "Just a bit more, okay?"

"O-ok-kay." It was all she could manage. She was hurtling towards the end, a collision course she could never see herself surviving.

And suddenly the arm behind her shoulders reached over and grasped her breast, and her already strained back somehow leaned further into it, and then again at the finger that pressed intently at the cloth over her entrance.

This was new.

Then Anna's thumb came crashing back down on her clit and Elsa's limbs went rigid as she was thrown over the edge.

Anna watched as Elsa succumbed to the pleasure, knowing better than to release the pressure on Elsa's center as she felt her sister-

_sister_

-struggle and cry out beside her as she finished.

Elsa moaned into Anna's neck, "Ah! _Anna_!"

She lay there as Elsa peaked, forcing her thoughts into a flat-line. Forcing herself to forgive Elsa, to shut out the wild spasms of that once so regal body, the sensation of her core throbbing against Anna's probing finger.

Forcing herself to feel nothing but cold as her queen shuddered in ecstasy beside her.

This wasn't Elsa, she reminded herself, as she let the blond enjoy the ultimate pleasure her hands provided.

Elsa was buried beneath all this. Still there, still her beautiful, loveable sister. All she needed was to be taken care of sometimes.

Elsa let out another moan, another jerk within her nirvana as her toes curled against the blanket.

Just a bit of help every so often. Everyone needs help sometimes, right?

Elsa came down slowly, sucking in lungfuls of air. Her completions had never been loud ones, for which Anna was thankful. It was enough having to tend to her sister in such a manner without risking suspicious stares from the night patrol.

As Elsa's breath began to steady, Anna gripped her tighter. She knew from experience that the blond wouldn't open her eyes. She would see the forced nature behind Anna's apparently happy look and wallow in even more shame.

Anna beamed nonetheless, the activity finished, while holding Elsa's still-twitching form against her.

"You alright?" Anna checked, once Elsa had finally gone limp.

"Yeah," Elsa whispered back against Anna's collarbone. "Th...thank you. You know...for doing this..."

"That was alright then?"

Another nod.

"I...I liked the extra touching. It felt...good. Better than usual..."

Anna rubbed a thumb along Elsa's shoulder. "I thought you might," she murmured. "I figured it-uh..." she caught herself at the last second, just before she brought it to words.

"It's okay," Elsa said quietly, "I know it's to...make it happen less often. I...I liked it. I'm pretty sure it'll work."

Anna gave her sister a comforting squeeze, not knowing what else to say and finally deciding on, "okay." At that, Anna shuffled herself away from Elsa's longing arms, scooting across her side of the bed and standing up. She moved to where Elsa's window would have sent the glow of the moon in to the room, facing drawn curtains instead.

Just like her own.

Peeking through, Anna looked out at the world. Everything seemed in order, not that she could really tell through the darkness. She opened one of the panes, letting the summer breeze caress her face.

Warm.

Finally.

Shutting the window and blinds, Anna turned back to her sibling. Elsa was already hidden under the covers, hands clutching her blanket protectively against her chest while she eyed Anna.

Anna slipped back onto the bed, over the duvet, to hold Elsa against her one more time.

Elsa couldn't contain the shudder of pleasure she felt when Anna renewed her presence, try as she might. She halted the stream of self pity in her mind long enough to nuzzle her head back against Anna's comforting shoulder.

"So, um..." Anna looked desperately for the words she needed.

"So you don't think you'll, y'know...need to go again tonight, or anything like that this time?"

After some time in thought, Anna felt Elsa shake her head against her arm.

"Y'sure?"

A nod.

Anna ran a hand down Elsa's hair, a comforting gesture she regretted as soon as she felt the furtive shiver of enjoyment Elsa derived from it. She swallowed her discomfort, though. As she always did.

"Okay," Anna said gently.

Elsa tried not to whimper as Anna carefully extracted herself from the embrace and made for the door.

"Goodnight Elsa."

Anna didn't wait for a response.

When she was gone and the world was again quiet and all that was left to the queen was the sinful memory of her sister's satisfying company, Elsa reached up beside her and grabbed one of the many pillows on her bed. One of the bigger, softer ones.

She brought it down against her torso and curled herself around it, hugging her arms and legs against the pillow while burying her face into its downy softness.

And eventually, finally, she drifted off to sleep.


	2. Chapter 1

**Whoa, so I really took my sweet time with this and it's a really short chapter. In the future I'm feeling like this story is gonna be a sort of short-but-fast update type thing. Midterms were busy, but I'm hoping to have more free time for the next week or so. I'm keeping the previous chapter as a prologue for now but I'm not happy with the way it transitions (didn't plan on doing a full story) so when we reach its natural point in the plot I may reorganize. For those curious, the next Little Comforts chapter is almost done. In other news, I'm adding a tag for the brief ElsaxOther that's gonna end up happening, but don't worry it'll be over soon. Unlike the paintrain.**

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><p><strong>3 Weeks Earlier<strong>

The sky was clear, the air was crisp, the snow was a gentle blanket on the ground, and it was an altogether alright day to be alive. Anna smiled up at the trees that speckled the castle grounds, enjoying the sounds of birds and other wildlife from within the veil of green leaves. The world was peaceful, and the sound of her sister following quietly behind her, footsteps hardly making a sound through the fresh layer of powder, filled her with hope.

Elsa was here. Her sister would always be with her.

"Alright," Anna chirped, spinning around, "this seems as good a place as any."

Elsa nodded, stooping down carefully in her light, icy dress to test the snow with her hands.

"Powder," she sighed, trying unsuccessfully to pack it into a ball. She looked up at Anna with bright features nonetheless. "It's okay though, I've been working on something..."

Lip bit in concentration, Elsa spread her hands away from her and let her power flow out. The snow around them darkened in a widening circle as it grew damp and packable. Anna, never one to grow bored of magic, looked on with wide eyes.

"Whoa, Elsa...that is so cool! You are the greatest sister ever!"

Elsa looked down, blushing. Anna's praise never failed to affect her.

They set to work, rolling up a boulder of snow by hand; Anna had made Elsa promise not to use any magic.

"We're doing this the hard way," she had insisted.

So Elsa had obeyed, because how could she resist those precious pouting lips she'd won out of her momentary resilience to the idea?

And so of course, minutes later, as Anna was turned on her back, shoving her shoulders against the same lump of snow Elsa was leaning into, she finally conceded with an angry huff.

"Fine, Elsa," she panted, "you can do the magic..."

Elsa gnawed at her lip, trying not to let the grin that forced its way onto her face grow too wide. As Anna slid down onto her back and off the well-sized boulder, Elsa let her sorcery well up inside her, relishing the feeling of it finally being put to a use that she was consciously dictating. With a small shove, the snowball shifted before her. Helpless to resist the furtive glance she shot behind herself, Elsa found warmth in the look of awe Anna directed at the ease with which she could suddenly move the heavy mass.

"God, Elsa," Anna practically whispered, "your magic is so cool! I'm still having trouble believing you kept it a secret for so long."

Elsa chuckled as she casually rolled the snowball, incapable of holding in a blush under Anna's scrutiny. "Well, it wasn't easy. There were so many times I wished I could have just shown you all over again..."

To her credit, Anna didn't let her smile falter under the force of the same pain Elsa herself knew her sister shared with her. Too many nights had they been absent from one another. Too many nights had they each screamed into their own pillows at the distance of the other. Too many nights had they lain back to back, separated by mere inches of flimsy wood, while Elsa listened to Anna's laments.

"It's alright," Anna chirped happily, suddenly jumping through the snow towards Elsa to run into her with a warm hug. "We've got all our lives ahead of us to enjoy each others company, alright?"

Reddening profusely at the contact, Elsa let her arms gently fall around Anna's shoulders. "Yes... All our lives," she repeated.

With one last squeeze, Anna released the hug, turning back to the boulder of snow. It was finally big enough that they could work on the 'abdomen' of the snowman, but Anna hesitated, worrying her lip before looking over to Elsa. The older girl's arms were clutched at her stomach, and her eyes were downcast.

The question had gone unasked too long already between them.

"Elsa," she said softly, "are you...are you gonna tell me what's up? Ever?"

She was not expecting Elsa to startle at her question like a spooked animal as she glanced up at her sister. Nor for her to stammer out a, "wh-what do you mean, Anna?"

The redhead sighed, spreading her arms out in indication of the expanse of snow around them.

"It's July, Elsa."

Elsa swallowed, nodding slightly as she looked down at her fidgeting hands. "Oh," she mumbled, "that."

"Yes, that. What's going on Elsa?" Anna strode back over to Elsa to place a comforting arm on the blond's shoulders. She could have sworn that Elsa flinched slightly. "You promised no more secrets, and...well, I've been trying to, y'know...give you your space and let you work out whatever it was you're obviously too uncomfortable to tell me, but it's been three days now and...Elsa this is dangerous."

"I know," Elsa said, eyes refusing to meet Anna's. "I know, I-I'm sorry, I'm working on it, I swear. I...just need some time to figure it out."

"And you think you can sort whatever this is out on your own? In time? People are going to start dying out there soon. Please just let me in, whatever it is...let me help you."

Elsa shut her eyes. "This isn't something you can help me with."

Anna let out a huff and dropped her arm. "What happened to no more secrets, huh? I thought you promised you wouldn't hide anything else away. You said it would be better, that we'd be...I don't know, close. But lately you've just been going back to being all closed off and distant again."

Whatever effect she expected her depressed little rant to have on Elsa, it certainly wasn't her face donning the pained expression she always put on before she cried. "I'm sorry," Elsa practically whispered, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry...there's just...something's wrong and I wish I could tell you but I can't, it's just...it's wrong and..."

"Elsa..." Anna breathed, heart breaking at the sight of her sister so pained. Elsa always seemed so fragile and small when she was like this, Anna had found.

"I'll fix it," Elsa said, forcing some more firmness into her voice. "I promise I'll fix it. I just need more time, but I swear I'll make it better."

They stared at one another for a short while as the wind picked up and blew light snowfall over them. When had the bright sun clouded over, Anna wondered.

"You...you really can't tell me?" She asked, trying not to let the hurt show in her voice.

Elsa shook her head. "You'd wish I hadn't if I did, believe me. Think of the worst thing you can think of me doing. It's worse than that."

Anna's eyebrows rocketed up her forehead, clamping a hand to her mouth to cover her gasp. "Elsa...is...it's really that bad?" She hissed softly. "Is there..." she almost couldn't say it, "is there like...a _body_ you need to hide?!"

It was Elsa's turn to look shocked. "No! No, gods Anna nothing like that..."

"Well you said the worst thing I could think of!"

Elsa gave her an embarrassed half-smile. "I hadn't thought your mind would take you there of all places."

Anna tensed shoulders slumped back down again. "Okay, good, so you didn't kill anyone, that's good at least, right?"

Her older sister let out a sad sigh, eying the clouds. "I wonder how long that will last for..."

"Probably not long," Anna agreed, her relief fading fast. "I trust you Elsa, really. But there's so much at stake here, and we both know that you haven't had much luck before with the whole 'conceal don't feel' thing."

When Elsa didn't respond, Anna continued, "I'm sorry it has to be like this but if you haven't got this sorted out by tomorrow I would like-no, I'm demanding that you tell me what's going on so we can work this out together, like we always do. Does that seem fair to you?"

It didn't seem fair, but then, nothing about this was fair as far as Elsa was concerned. Least of all for Anna. The wind picked up again as the fear of revealing the secret that had been dwelling so long in her heart peaked. The thought of telling Anna about the sickness that had been plaguing her the past years was a sickening one.

But the possible alternative...

Elsa sagged in defeat, merely nodding and hoping Anna didn't notice the drop in temperature when she swooped Elsa up into another hug.

"It'll be alright Elsa," she promised. "You'll see."

"Okay," Elsa let a smile creep back to her face. It felt good to smile, and she reminded herself to do it more often in the future.

"Good. Now," Anna turned back to their previously abandoned craft. "We're finishing that snowman. And then you and I are having a snowball fight. And you're gonna have fun, and relax, and maybe even laugh a little darn it."

Elsa conceded, putting some warmth back into her voice. "Maybe not a snowball fight though. I'm not so sure I trust myself to go throwing any more ice or snow at you to be honest."

Anna giggled. "C'mon Elsa," she said through a grin, "I know you'd never hurt me with your magic."

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><p>For once, Elsa was thankful for the rattling noise her window made under the intensity of the blizzard. It wasn't that she was worried about anyone else hearing her, desolate corner of the castle she was tucked away in, but she had always internally recoiled at hearing herself in the throes of passion.<p>

Or frustration, as was the case. Elsa slammed her face into her pillow, letting it absorb the angry growl that more or less ended with a sob. It had been hours since she'd started the usual routine of desperately pawing between her legs and for the better part of the last hour she had been so damnably close.

She closed her eyes, gritting her teeth against the pain of her red labia, rubbed raw in desperation, trying to conjure up the images of her sister she'd had to begin thinking of years ago to avoid this exact predicament. She had hoped it would never come to this again. But here it was again, and here she was again perpetually caught just at the marvelous brink before her climax and incapable of crossing the threshold.

With a cry of pure anguish, Elsa tore her hand away from between her legs in defeat. She was panting, soaked in a sheen of sweat and she knew her hips would be jerking wildly for a few minutes as she was forced through the painful process of coming down from her high on the wrong side of the peak. Normally she would have stopped long before, spared herself and her sanity from the torment, but Anna's deadline hung heavily in her mind and some things, she knew, were worse than this.

She was helpless to stop the sniffling that soon turned into broken sobs of shame as she lay there, twitching in her damp puddle of sweat and other fluids. There was nothing left. Her mind, body and magic were all beyond her control, leaving Elsa betrayed by every ounce of her being.

When she finally cooled off enough to stand without falling over, Elsa made her dejected way across the room to stare out the window at the slowly calming storm.

Some people were lucky enough to wear their hearts on their sleeves.

Without really knowing why, Elsa traced a hand down the cool glass. She stayed there a while, knowing full well she wasn't going to be falling asleep any time soon. Instead she mulled through the ways to tell Anna of her sickness, nothing especially painless coming to mind.

Tomorrow, she decided, was going to be a breakfast-in-bed kind of day.


	3. Chapter 2

It wasn't until lunch that Anna got to see Elsa slink into sight at the end of the dining hall, wearing her usual ice dress. With a smile, Anna waved her older sister over, relieved when Elsa obliged her and made her way across the room to find a seat near their place by the warm fire. Maybe this wouldn't be as difficult as she'd thought.

At the very least, after this, there would be no more secrets.

"So," she began casually while Elsa seated herself, "breakfast in bed, huh?"

"Yeah," Elsa said quietly. "I just needed some time to...anyways, thanks for not, y'know, barging through my door first thing in the morning."

Anna shrugged. "I figured you'd want some time to work out how to say whatever it is you need to say."

"I did." Elsa had needed all the time in the world.

Anna smiled up at her for a bit, before remembering herself and motioning to the food laid out. "Anyways, hey, no need to go jumping into it now, why don't you have a bite, make yourself comfortable? I'm just working through some bread right now."

Elsa spared a moment to contemplate the food, but it was pretty clear it would go as uneaten as her breakfast.

"I'd rather just get this over with."

With a slow nod, Anna put her slice of bread down, swallowing the bite she'd been chewing through. "Alright, I guess we can do this now then. I sent the servants out a little while ago so we should have some privacy, so I...yeah. Yeah, now can work." The sudden drop in her stomach surprised her, and it occurred to Anna that she may have been almost as nervous as her sister. For Elsa to be acting like this...

Anna internally shook herself clear of the thoughts. Whatever was to happen would happen and she would deal with it then.

Despite her desire to forgo beating about the bush, Elsa's words were catching in her throat and she stared down at her hands wondering where to begin.

After a short pause, Anna cut in with a impatient chuckle. "Elsa, it's uuh...it's not getting' any warmer out there. Or in here, may I remind you."

Didn't she know it.

"Okay, well," Elsa began cautiously, "for the past little while, or I guess it's been a few years now. Probably before the whole fiasco where I froze everything even..."

"You mean the first time?" Anna cut in.

Elsa shot a glare her way before continuing. "Yes, the first time. That's not helping, Anna."

"Sorry."

"So yes, probably well before even then, I started having these..." Elsa grit her teeth.

"Feelings."

"Feelings?" Anna echoed in confusion.

Elsa nodded. "Th-These feelings that I would get whenever I...whenever I thought about-" she caught herself on the 'you'. It wouldn't come out.

In its absence a far better option presented itself to her.

"About someone I knew. Well, know."

Anna's brows came together in thought as she regarded Elsa's fumbling. Finally it struck her.

"Oh my god," she whispered, her open mouth stretching into a small grin.

"Oh my god, Elsa...you're in love?!" Relief washed through her.

Elsa bit her lip, but quickly nodded again, still refusing to meet Anna's gaze.

"Wha-? Elsa that's fantastic!" Anna squeaked, quickly shuffling off her seat and scampering around the table to her sister.

Elsa hoped her blush didn't deepen when Anna wrapped her in that familiar warm embrace.

"I'm so happy for you!" Anna withdrew, letting her hands rest on Elsa's shoulders and turning the older girl to face her before going on. "I just...why did you keep it in like this? Why wouldn't you have told me?"

It was the utter lack of reaction in her sister that began cluing Anna in. Elsa didn't seem even the slightest bit relieved at her joviality.

There was only one reason Anna could think of that Elsa would be scared to tell her she was in love.

"Oh no," she breathed.

Elsa jerking back from her in response, somehow looking even more terrified than before, only seemed to confirm her suspicions. The feeling of dread and panic returned twofold.

"Oh Elsa no...no please don't say you..."

Elsa's eyes were widened, fearfully staring back into Anna's, searching for some hint that she knew what was coming.

Anna cupped a hand to her mouth in horror. "Oh god Elsa is it...please, please say it's not Kristoff..."

But how could it not be when Elsa's face crumpled into that mask of sorrow and her trembling hands slipped back around her torso and tears began to well up in her squinted eyes? Anna took a moment to breathe and fight down the anger that flashed through her flurried heart. This wasn't Elsa's fault, she knew, the blond was clearly upset about her feelings for-

But then Elsa was shaking her head. "No!" She finally managed to choke out. "It's...it isn't him."

"Oh." It took a moment for the information to sink in and paint a blush on her face. "Okay. Oh man, sorry-Elsa I'm sorry, I didn't...I mean I guess I just panicked, yknow, cause you were panicking and I thought-"

"Anna, Anna it's alright, it's fine," Elsa interrupted hurriedly. "I just...it's just all so messed up. Everything's so messed up and wrong in my head and I... God, is it wrong that I wish it was just as simple as me wanting Kristoff?" The tears were flowing freely now, she couldn't stop them.

Anna chewed the inside of her cheek for a moment as Elsa tried to regain control of herself. Elsa was in love. It was such a strange thought to her that the shy, demure Elsa would ever find love. She'd honestly begun to wonder if there was anyone out there even worthy of her sister's affection.

"Alright," she began, "so it's love. Not Kristoff, so nothing to do with me this time thank goodness-"

-Elsa winced down to her very soul-

"-but it's love. And I guess he's not feeling it back for you?"

"No," Elsa deadpanned, "no they're not."

But Anna had missed the obvious, and dragged up the subtle instead. "But you said you'd loved him since before even the, you know, the first accident...?"

Elsa knew what was coming. "And you're wondering why it's only now that my magic is acting up."

"Yeah, I guess. Have the feelings gotten stronger or something?"

Elsa sighed, having finally reigned her tears in for the time being. She'd been hoping Anna wouldn't pick up on this part of the problem, but she'd already come this far. "No. Well, I suppose yes, they're always getting stronger, but no that's not why it's acting up now."

Anna just waited expectantly so Elsa forced herself to continue on. "When I began to get a bit older, one day during the summer I noticed it had begun growing cold, and there were a few snowflakes falling. You probably don't remember, I'm sure, it was brief and not too severe because I found out how to...stop it that night."

"Okay, so you figured out a way before? That's promising! What did you do that seemed to help?" Anna was smiling in earnest now. Finally, a light at the end of the tunnel.

Elsa, as usual, still seemed distressed, and she was blushing all the more furiously now too. "I...Oh god Anna I can't do this."

"Hey," Anna spoke softly as she moved up behind Elsa, massaging the older girl's shoulders comfortingly. "Hey now, what's this? You were doing so well Elsa. Come on, it's alright, you can tell me."

Elsa took in a deep breath, and very carefully _did not_ release it as a shaky, desperate moan at the feeling of Anna's strong hands working her flesh.

Well, if ever there were a time to talk about it.

"I found that these...winters that I caused would always coincide with my...with certain, um, desires that I had begun feeling." Elsa couldn't believe it had come to this. To revealing the nature of her depravity to her sister.

The hands at her back paused. Elsa wasn't sure whether she appreciated that or not.

"Oh," came Anna's voice from behind her. "I...oh. Okay." Anna was sure she was blushing just as hard as her sister by this point. When she had confronted her sister the day before and demanded she come clean about the winter, she honestly would never have expected in a thousand years that it would lead to her dragging out the private details of the sexuality it was just now occurring to her that her Elsa had. Elsa had always seemed too reserved, too angelic, to have...urges like that.

"So..." Anna went on, wracking her brain for a possible solution, "so did mom not give you that talk when you turned thirteen about-"

"No, she did," Elsa hastily interrupted. The hands on her shoulders dropped, which she supposed was for the better. "I'd found that I could...if I just," she slammed her eyes shut and forced out the next words, "took care of those urges, the snow would stop."

Anna just hugged Elsa from behind. It couldn't have been easy for her to talk about this, necessary as it was, and Anna could already feel her sister beginning to shake in her arms.

"It's alright," she whispered again, "there's nothing to be ashamed of Elsa. I-I mean, we've all done it, it's perfectly normal."

"Anna, please...please just don't..."

Anna let go of Elsa, moving to sit beside her. "Sorry," she said, "I just know this must be so hard for you, having all your secrets torn out of you like this. If I thought there was any other way..."

Elsa's expression hardened. "But there isn't."

"Yeah," Anna studied the far wall for a bit before carrying the discussion forward. "So anyway, you said you'd, y'know, figured out a solution, so what's up?"

Elsa buried her face in her hands and whispered, "it's not working."

"You mean it doesn't make the snow stop anymore?"

"_No_, I mean I can't..." She grit her teeth. "I can't finish anymore."

"Well. That...that's really weird," Anna admitted. "Um, you think maybe it's like a technique thing?"

"Technique?"

"Yeah, like for me I used to have a lot of trouble when I was just by myself, but when Kristoff gets going on me whoa boy I'm like Old Fai-"

"_Anna!_"

"Right, right, sorry, probably too much information," Anna winced at her jittery rambling.

"And no," Elsa went on, admittedly emboldened somewhat by her sister's own embarrassing outburst despite the flash of blinding rage at the mention of Kristoff, "no it's not a...a technique thing. I can get close but then it just stops."

"Ouch," Anna cringed at the idea, "that sounds pretty bad. I'm gonna be honest I have no clue what to make of all this, Elsa. Has it ever happened before?"

Elsa nodded. "When I was younger it happened, but I resolved it by... Well, you should understand that I hadn't liked thinking about this person I'd become so infatuated with while I did these things. It just felt wrong. But then on the night when...it happened, I was desperate for any relief I could find, and I started thinking about them and...well, it worked. I fear it's tied to my powers somewhat."

Anna considered that. "That sounds almost like your magic wants you closer to this guy you're so head over heels for. Maybe if you find him and get him to uh," she searched desperately for a way to put it that wouldn't send Elsa scurrying away in a fit of shyness, "y'know, show you a good time? Maybe that would work."

Classic Anna, always ready to believe in the healing properties of a stern dicking.

Elsa continued her trend of looking none the more relieved. "They wouldn't return my feelings for them."

"Right, right, unrequited love and all that. Still, if it's just a physical thing I'm having a hard time believing there's a man out there who would turn down a chance to sleep with the queen to save his country. An attractive queen at that." She missed Elsa's blush begin anew beside her while she chirped away at the wall in front of them. "Wait, it's not because of your magic is it? Do you think he's scared of you?"

Elsa couldn't take it anymore. "Sh-She."

"What?"

"She's a 'she'."

"Who's a-oh. _Oh_. Wait, you're...? Oh. Okay." Tonight was full of surprises it seemed. "That's...whoa. Alright, I was definitely not expecting that. That's...seriously? Elsa why did you never tell me?"

"It's...complicated."

"I'll say," Anna slouched back against her chair, gazing for what felt like the first time ever at her older sibling. The queen, she reminded herself. The queen who was lusting miserably after some woman. Some woman with no interest in Elsa-no, in women at all. It finally clicked into place for Anna. "Well I guess that explains the 'unrequited' part, huh?"

Elsa nodded solemnly, slumping her head into her arms against the table.

"I don't know what I'm going to do!" She sobbed, her voice muffled by her arms. "Y-You must think me such a w-wretched creature for all this."

"No," Anna murmured earnestly, "Elsa I told you, you're my sister, I'll love you no matter what, okay?"

"You w-wouldn't love me i-if you knew who I y-yearned for!"

"Try me."

"I...I can't! I just can't, please understand."

Anna rubbed a thumb along Elsa's shoulder. "Why is this so hard, Elsa? I can't think of anyone in the world I'd get upset at you for loving. Er, Kristoff aside I guess. I'd be pretty upset if it was him. But I mean, I was thinking it was gonna be Hans for a second there and even that wouldn't have been so bad. It can't be worse than Hans, right?"

Elsa's head remained buried against the table. "Please stop Anna. Please? Haven't we ruined enough of my privacy for one night? Just know that it is worse. It's the worst possible person it could ever be."

"Fine," Anna relented. "But just know that whoever h-er, she is, she's the luckiest lady in the world."

Elsa was feeling too loathsome to be cheered up. "Until I freeze her to death."

Right, the winter. Anna had let it slip from her mind for a moment.

"I guess we still need to find a solution for that, huh?"

"How?!" Elsa lifted her head up to stare tearfully at Anna. "If my magic keeps forcing me to escalate my contact with her, what solution is there? Could there possibly be?"

They were both avoiding the obvious, and Anna knew it. She didn't want to be the one to suggest that Elsa's mystery woman may have no choice but to lay with her sister. Do or die, so to speak.

But thankfully, mercifully, something came to her.

"Wait, Elsa! I've got it!" Anna half shouted in her excitement. "What if you don't actually _need_ to be with _her_?"

"I...what? I don't follow."

"Well, there are tons of women out there who _do_, uuh...have, y'know, a particular fondness for other women, right?"

Elsa blinked a few times, mostly at Anna's inability to say 'lesbians', but she quickly caught the gist of what the redhead was saying.

"You-You're saying that simply being with any other woman would suffice?"

"Oh come on Elsa, don't look so nervous. It's _nice_ laying with other people, you'll _enjoy_ it!" Anna was going on the assumption that Elsa was a virgin. She was not surprised in the slightest when Elsa said nothing to indicate otherwise.

"Oh, no, I'm really not sure I'm up for-"

"Oh relax! You'll be fine, you big baby. Besides, you're like what? Twenty-something now? It's high time someone made an honest woman out of you."

Anna's good mood just couldn't be tamed.

"_Anna!_" Elsa screeched again, mortified for the countless time that night.

But her sister just gave her a friendly shove. "Cheer up Elsa, seriously. We can't afford to _not_ take advantage of this. It's a solution, and a good one too. Besides, the sapphic ladies will be lining up for a shot with you. Probably even some of the straight ladies too. You'll have your pick of all the _really_ nice ones, I mean how lucky can you get?"

"Anna, please, this must be discreet. We can't go about advertising that I need to...to _sleep_ with someone-a woman, no less-in order to save the country!"

Anna shrugged. "We can do discreet. Maybe we can round up some ladies of the night for you, just have them on retainer for when you need them. Lord knows we can afford it. At least until the crop damages start adding up."

"I am not sleeping with some...some _whore_ from the streets," Elsa snapped, a rare moment of fury blaring from her.

Anna leaned back, bringing her hands up in mock-defense. "Whoa, whoa, okay, no prostitutes then, jeez. But adding some sort of incentive may be good to increase the selection of people. Maybe you can find someone who looks like this woman you've set your sights on. That could help, y'know?"

Elsa let out a long, drawn out breath of resignation. "Okay," she finally agreed, "okay, I'll do it."

Anna's smirk said it all.

"I have to admit," Elsa went on, "I haven't the faintest clue as to where to start looking for, uh...women, for this sort of thing."

"That's cause you never bother to leave the castle," Anna said, "don't worry, I've got you covered there, I can take care of this. What sort of ladies are you looking for?"

Not too sure she wanted Anna any more involved in the specifics of her imminent deflowering, Elsa's everlasting flush deepened, cascading down her shoulders.

She was certain she looked like a lobster by this point. A lobster with a full head of luscious white hair.

"Just find a...selection, I suppose, of varying women, and I'll take it from there. Um...make sure you find lots of different...hair colours."

"You got it," her sister grinned, "one batch of hotties comin' right up!"

* * *

><p><strong>There we go, set up for a not-so-miserable bit of ElsaxOC smuttiness for the next chapter or two, before the Elsanna shit starts getting really real. It might even be a threesome just because fuck it.<strong>

**Heavy dialogue chapter here, but it needed to get out of the way so that the real fun could start. Plenty of awkwardness, but not so mortifying that I couldn't slip in a few chuckles and that vague shimmer of hope that I always love to destroy. Not that blondie's ever feeling hopeful of course, and now she gets to have her devirginizing meticulously planned by her sister like some kind of bizarre wedding ceremony. See Elsa? That's what you get for having a gigglechute that controls the weather. Bet you can't guess what _this_ button does!**


	4. Chapter 3

Elsa's hand lingered on the door handle. She could hear the soft murmur of conversation from within and it did nothing to strengthen her resolve. Anna would be in there too; Anna who had made hasty work of her promise to find Elsa a group of women deemed appropriate for the task, and it was hardly before dinner that Elsa had found herself summoned to some dusty spare room in one of the less traveled corners of the palace.

She could at least be thankful for Anna's discretion. No need for the help to find out after all. At least, not until it became unavoidable. Elsa supposed they would probably have to pay for the rejected women's silence as well. Perhaps some sort of delayed payment until enough time had passed.

The queen forced herself back to the present. Standing out in the halls daydreaming would only increase the likelihood of her being noticed. She released the breath she'd been holding and opened the door.

The room hushed immediately as she entered, all eyes on her. Several dozen heads bobbed down in curtsey and the room echoed as she was bombarded by a cluster of "your grace"s. Swallowing, Elsa put them at ease with a nod of her head before turning to shut the door behind her closed.

"Hey Elsa," came that soft, ever cheerful voice. Elsa faced the room again as Anna strode up to her. She noticed her sister's hair was in its usual braids today, in stark contrast to the way Elsa kept her own up in its more formal position. It had seemed more appropriate for the situation, though she couldn't say why.

"You get lost on your way here or something?" The redhead asked, oblivious to her sister's earlier hesitation before the door.

"I got caught up in work," Elsa explained in what she hoped was a convincing, steady tone. It probably wasn't. It was already taking everything she had not to turn tail and flee. She kept her eyes firmly planted on Anna, not daring to look at the rest of the faces in the room. "Thank you for...for your efforts today Anna," she went on, "I believe I can take it from here."

"Alright," Anna said happily, "I'll be here for you if you need me."

Damn it Anna. How was Elsa supposed to get any sense of attraction to these women with her beautiful sister right there?

"I-I mean I've got this, Anna."

Anna narrowed her eyes.

How could it be this hard to divine Elsa's meaning? The queen let out a disgruntled huff. "Anna, I would really...really rather you not, um, be here for this." Her cheeks were aflame. Everyone in the room could likely see.

"Oh," Anna fidgeted at her obvious dismissal. "Okay, well I'll uh, I'll head off then. Will I...see you at dinner?"

Right. Eating.

"I will see you at dinner," Elsa confirmed. She turned to watch Anna go, and didn't turn around when the door closed with a soft click. Elsa went over the most subtle ways she could think of to make here selection. She needed some way to make it less obvious why she was choosing who she chose.

After a while, and a sigh, Elsa turned back around, clasping her hands together at her waist. As always, the room waited on her patiently. She cast her eyes around, getting a sense of what there was to work with. Lots of different hair colours, that was good, at least Anna would be kept in the dark a little while longer. With a quickening of her heartbeat, Elsa saw they were all quite attractive too, and mercifully nobody was dressed in anything bawdy. Anna, thank the gods, had the foresight to filter out the more unbecoming displays of salaciousness.

Not that it made it much more bearable to be in a room full of people intent on having sex with her as a career move.

"Thank you for coming everyone," Elsa spoke to the room, trying to quell the distinct feeling of being a piece of meat under the watchful gaze of hawks. "Regretfully, I must dismiss all of you without red hair," this was punctuated with a quiet chorus of frustrated grumbling. "Please make your way out through the back door and along the route in that you were taken. As always, your discretion is appreciated." Hardly subtle, but Elsa couldn't really think of any other way to make this easier on herself.

Elsa waited for the mass of young women to slowly filter out of the room, leaving it far less populated. Elsa breathed a sigh of relief at the more tolerable number of people she was before. There were six women who remained. Redheads were rare, Elsa made sure to be thankful that Anna had put in the extra effort.

"If those of you remaining could form a line in front of me," she requested. They did so, and Elsa darted her eyes between them. All pretty, all younger than her. Elsa could get lost in the freckles before her. She felt the familiar heat pooling between her legs, and this time she bit back the usual shame that accompanied it. Here, finally, it was safe. Here she could take the reigns, be the predatory one.

Elsa dropped her eyes, giving each of their chests an appreciative look. It was important that she chose the right one, she told herself, and tried to ignore the one or two furious blushes at her obvious appraisal. She had gone so long in her life with too heavy a burden of etiquette to risk being caught staring at women's chests, and it felt so right to just be free to do so. Elsa knew if she wasn't careful she could probably get lost in that inviting feminine swell, which would be embarrassing even given the circumstances.

After a while, Elsa made her decision. The girl was young, slender with just the right amount of baby fat adorning her face and an undeniable...generousness, below the collar. Elsa could see her in twin braids, with those sparkling green eyes, and in the dark would it really be so different?

"You," Elsa finally said to her, "I have decided on you. The rest of you, again, thank you for coming and you are dismissed."

The girl's face lit up, and she took a step forward as the others shuffled out trying not bounce excitedly. She waited until they were finally alone to speak.

"Thank you, your grace. For choosing me. I promise I'll do my best for you!" Well, at least she was eager. Elsa could see the admiration in the way the girl looked at her.

Elsa nodded her acknowledgment. "Your name?" She inquired.

"Oh, um, Marie. I'm Marie, your grace."

"Marie." Pleasant name. Elsa tentatively extended a gloved hand. "Pleased to make your acquaintance Marie. I'm sure you know who I am."

Marie shook the offered hand, a touch on the energetic side Elsa noticed. "I do, and I am so pleased to meet you too your grace!"

Her voice didn't sound like Anna's. A little too deep, especially bereft the higher peaks that her sister's voice made. Elsa tried not to let it get to her. She led Marie from the room, talking to her as they walked down torchlit halls.

"Your room is being prepared as we speak, not quite ready yet I'm afraid. However, as it is late enough anyway, you will be waiting in my chambers for me to return from dinner. I trust you have been fed already?"

"Yes. We were all fed earlier."

"Good. When your room is ready it will be yours while you are here. You will be fed, bathed, provided with clothing and otherwise treated as our guest. It is likely the servants will find out about this arrangement, if they haven't already, so you needn't be mindful of discretion while traveling the castle halls. Otherwise, as I'm sure has been outlined to you, you will not reveal this to anyone."

Marie looked up at her while walking, her eyes round and earnest. "I won't, I swear it."

"It is appreciated." She took a moment to think of how to phrase her next words.

"What of my...situation have you been told so far?"

"Nothing much. Merely the, ah, nature of my work, and that it was of the utmost importance..."

Marie looked as though she was about to say more, but closed her mouth when she saw they had arrived at the door to Elsa's room, which Elsa opened, saying, "very well, that will do for now. Please wait here for my return, I shouldn't be long."

Marie wandered into Elsa's chambers, eyes taking in their grandeur. Decadent they weren't, but Elsa supposed the girl had probably never seen anything near their like before.

"Is there...anything you'd like me to do to prepare for tonight?" Marie wondered, turning around from within the room.

Thoughts of returning to find the girl naked and splayed out sensually across her bed flashed through Elsa's mind.

"No, simply waiting will do. I will see you after I have eaten, good day." Elsa closed the door, perhaps a little too hurriedly, but breathing a heavy sigh of relief all the same. She was sure that conversation had damn near killed her.

* * *

><p>Anna glanced down at Elsa's trembling fingers, manipulating her fork into simply stirring the contents of her plate around, and rolled her eyes. Her older sister was going to have to feast on something other than awkward silence sometime soon. Those sunken cheeks did not bode well.<p>

"Come on Elsa, look alive," she cheered. "This should be a happy day for you!"

Elsa dropped her fork in frustration and fell back against her chair. "I'm glad you think as much Anna, not being the one who has to go through with this and all."

"Is she cute? You picked a cute one right? Oh! Do I get to meet her?" Technically, Anna had already 'met' the girl while she had given the congregation of women she'd gathered a light rundown on how not to make Elsa flee the room like a startled mouse. Still, she found herself curious as to who Elsa would have chosen.

Elsa shot her a withering look. "I would rather you didn't, if it's all the same. I'd like to maintain some vague semblance of privacy."

Anna huffed at that. "Really Elsa? You got to meet Kristoff. Why shouldn't I get to meet your first time? It could be like a family tradition!"

"Gods, no, Anna..." Elsa buried her face in her hands. She had most certainly not wanted to meet Kristoff, especially with the two practically glowing in satisfaction after emerging from Anna's bedroom. It had taken Anna days to coax Elsa out of her own quarters after that. "Can we just not talk about it please?"

"Nope, this is your pregame ribbing Elsa. It's my job. Self-appointed of course."

"Well as your queen I command you fire yourself at once."

"And as your sister, nope. You're not getting away that easy."

"What is your fascination with this Anna?" Elsa even did a good job of keeping the hope out of her voice.

Anna giggled at that, reaching across to pinch Elsa's cheek before she could duck out of the way. "It just fills me with pride that my sis is all grown up and finally being social." Not for the first time, Elsa wondered how it was even physically possible for her to feel anything but sororicidal towards her sister.

"You call this 'socializing'? How dreadful, I should have opened the gates ages ago for you."

"See? That's the spirit," Anna grinned. "Now come on, you've got a big night ahead of you. Eat your food, if not for your health then at least my peace of mind?"

Elsa groaned in protest, but Anna was making puppy eyes so she forced some food in her mouth. At the very least it seemed to keep Anna complacent for a bit, not to mention give her a good excuse not to engage in conversation, and towards the end of the meal Elsa had to admit she was feeling somewhat better. Though not entirely.

The two sat in silence after their plates were cleared. Elsa stared off into the fire for a while, thinking of nothing. Eventually she felt a hand on her shoulder, but she didn't look over at Anna.

"Hey," the younger girl spoke softly, "you'll be alright, okay?"

Elsa leaned her head into the warm fingers. "Thank you Anna." She meant it.

"You want me to walk with you to your room?"

Yes.

"No, I'll be fine. Or...as fine as can be, I suppose."

A gentle squeeze. "It's not that scary, trust me."

Elsa let out a short sigh. "What if it doesn't work?"

"It'll work." A pause, then, "if it doesn't, think about her."

"I always do."

"I'll see you tomorrow at breakfast?"

Elsa smiled at the fire. "I'd like that."

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, so admittedly no smut this chapter, but it will definitely be there next chapter, which is mostly written by this point as an extension of this chapter before it got way too long. It'll probably be up by tonight or tomorrow.<strong>


	5. Chapter 4

It was a long walk back to her room, which had moved upon her coronation to her parent's old chambers, a good distance away from Anna's, which Elsa was thankful for. The halls were silent and empty, as they usually were this time of night. Elsa's footsteps echoed as she walked, and the sound kept her company.

She paused outside her door, almost knocking before realizing how silly that would be. It still took her a while to work up the courage to just open the damn thing, which was becoming all too common a theme for her.

The door creaked open slowly, Elsa peeking her head inside to...gauge the situation, or something, before wandering fully into the room. Marie was seated at the edge of the bed, and stood when she heard Elsa enter. Elsa turned and hastily locked the door.

She heard Marie giggle at her precaution. "Expecting to be interrupted tonight?"

Elsa turned back to the girl, clasping her hands at her waist. "I-I'd rather be sure," she explained. While there was no one in the castle who would dare enter her chambers without her express permission, aside from Anna who Elsa suspected wouldn't be a problem tonight, she felt better with the safeguard in place all the same.

Marie seemed to accept that answer. "How was dinner, your grace?" She asked, eager for some, any, conversation with the queen.

"Fine, thank you," Elsa answered, eager to run away into a dark corner and stay there forever. She was regretting not using a spare room for this. Her own room had always been a retreat, somewhere she could go to find shelter from the world. Now the world was dragging itself in.

To her credit, Marie was keen on not letting any awkward silences between them drag on. Padding across the room towards Elsa, she motioned towards the dresser. "A servant came by earlier, said she had been sent by the princess..."

Elsa's eyes flicked over to where the girl indicated. "Oh Anna," she sighed, less to the world in general and more at the bottle of cognac resting on the surface to her right.

"I was informed that your sister was under the impression you could do with some loosening up," Marie said with a grin and the pointed quirking of a brow, but hastily added a, "your grace."

The queen was smiling in spite of her exasperated huff. Marie's refined good mood was almost as infectious as Anna's wild one, and it was refreshing to realize she could let herself be cheered by it in relative safety. Drinking, however, was still not for her, so she dismissed the offered bottle. "No thank you, Marie, I'm sure it's an unnecessary distraction from our business here. Though you may drop the 'your grace's, our relationship here is informal enough, lord knows."

But the redhead shrugged that off. "The night's still young," she pointed out, "and a few minutes more in the cold won't hurt anyone. The people's tempers will warm them, I'm sure."

"I'd still rather we-" Elsa started, the realization finally hitting her. "You _know_?!" She hissed. "You said nobody had been told abou-"

"And nobody was," Marie promised hastily, holding a calming hand up. "I worked it out for myself. I'm sure it won't come as a surprise to you, but blizzards in summer tend to stay on the forefront of everybody's mind. I can't say I'm the only one of the girls who suspected some tie in between the winter and your...frustrations. Now," she motioned to the rarely occupied armchairs she had set up in front of the fireplace, "how about we take her highness's advice?"

Elsa was hardly at ease with the news. She hardly needed a slew of women descending from her castle to spread their suspicions of her accidental winter. She was facing enough guff from the town at large as it was.

Marie must have read the reluctance on her queen's face, because she finally gathered enough of her own nerves to step forward and gently clasp Elsa's worried hands in her own. "Have a drink with me Elsa," the blond tried not to shudder at the sound of her name coming from those lips, "we have all the time in the world to ease into this."

Elsa slowly inhaled, sorting her indecisive mind out. She wasn't ready to dive into this, that much was obvious even with Marie's body so enticingly near her own.

"Okay," she finally breathed out. Marie's face lit up, and she slid her hands away from Elsa's to meander over to a chair, eyes lingering on her queen. After a moment's hesitation, Elsa scooped up the bottle and two glasses and made her own way over to the crackling fire. She seated herself, turning with an eye winced against the heat of the flames to pour amber liquid into the glasses she'd set on the small table between them. Marie picked her drink up, bobbing it in a toast at Elsa who made in kind before lightly sipping the drink. It scorched her mouth, but she forced it down, exhaling carefully over her tender tongue. Thank god Anna had forced some food in her for this.

"So," it was Marie who began, as usual, "ice magic. I can't imagine I'm the first person curious about that."

It was a casual start to things, but Elsa wasn't complaining. She let out an uncharacteristic snort at the question. "You'd be right. I've had a lot of questions to answer this past year. Letters from all over the world as news spread. I don't really think anybody outside Arendelle actually believes the rumors of my power, though a number of universities wrote in hopes that I'd let them poke and prod at me." Elsa shrugged, taking another sip of her drink.

Marie rested her head in a palm, eyes pinned on Elsa. "What's it like though? To be able to make ice?"

"Scary," Elsa admitted, looking down at an open palm. "Like there's something in my veins that's singing to everything around me, and if I just...pull," with the twitch of her fingers a small cube of ice formed in her hands, "I can bring something into being from nowhere." She looked over the ice for a moment, before plunking it into her cognac where it cracked along to the tune of the fireplace.

Marie, for her part, was fascinated. "What does the winter feel like?" She asked.

That one was a bit more personal. Elsa chewed her lip trying to figure out how best to _not_ explain that this particular winter was connected to a particularly personal feeling.

Ever the fast learner, Marie caught on. "Oh, right. Alright, well I guess I can piece that one together."

"I'm sorry, it's just...this whole thing is so far from anything I've ever done. This is all so unlike me, I must look like a quivering little child to you."

It was Marie's turn to shrug. "First times are scary Elsa. I know trembled through mine."

That brought out a bit of curiosity in Elsa. It occurred to her she was on the verge of sharing her bed with this girl and she remained a perfect stranger. Finishing the rest of her drink with a grimace Elsa moved to refill her glass.

"Tell me about yourself, Marie." Even as the words left her mouth she realized how it would sound to have them follow the girl's immediate revelation. Too late now though.

And as always, Marie was accommodating of her awkwardness. She told Elsa of her life as the daughter to some gentleman, married into money to a baron nearly as forgettable as her father. There were drunken nights spent tending to his advances as chastely as possible, until the man presumed her barren and left her in spite to her own devices. From there, Marie explained, she wasted no time throwing the man's money away on company more to her liking for as long as it took her to get caught. With a great and terrible rage, the baron cast her out, leaving her penniless and alone, with no family who would dare welcome her in.

"So I made my way to Arendelle," she finished brightly, "which was only a few weeks back. Since then I've been having considerable luck in the nunnery the town over, the chaste kind, but I must admit this seemed like a far better offer."

Elsa finished swallowing her gulp of cognac. It had gotten a lot easier to drink over the course of the three glasses she'd had while Marie spoke. It felt like she was swimming in calmness, and there was a peaceful warmth spreading out from her belly. It wasn't entirely enough to sooth her nerves, but it was definitely taking the edge off.

"Sorry," Marie chuckled at her silence, "too long winded for you?"

"Hm? Oh, no," Elsa snapped to, "I was just uh, chewing over everything you said." It wasn't wrong, Elsa had certainly been given a lot to think about.

"Feeling better?" Marie nodded towards the bottle, which was just past half empty from their efforts.

"Yeah. A little, I guess. Though after everything you told me I'm starting to just feel childish again."

"How so?"

Elsa let herself breathe for a moment while she pieced together what she needed to say. Thinking had become difficult, though nowhere near as much as she'd been lead to believe.

"I guess it's that you've had such a full life. All these difficulties I'll never need to face, but here I am a complete mess over...nothing, really."

"I think having the lives of your whole country reliant on your sex life is a pretty normal thing to panic about." Well, at least Elsa wasn't the only one feeling drunk.

"But of all the people it could have happened to, I'm the luckiest person in the world. I mean, look where we are. It was as simple as ordering someone, you I suppose, in here to take care of it for me. Can you imagine if it had been some street urchin? What people would have done to her if they found out?"

Marie stared into her drink, swirling it around in contemplation, watching the fire refract through it.

"What do you think people will do to _you_ if this doesn't work and the winter doesn't stop?"

Elsa's expression hardened. "Nothing I couldn't stop them from doing." There would be no angry mob invading her castle. Not while she had anything to say about it.

Not while Anna could be put in harm's way.

"Besides," she went on, deigning to lighten up a little, "killing me would be...well, it wouldn't be a solution."

"The winter would go on regardless?"

"Worse."

"Worse how?"

"Way worse. Let's...leave it at that." There were some things, drunk or no, that had to remain secret.

Of course, Marie simply shrugged it off. The two of them sat in silence for a bit, content to simply be. Elsa knew it couldn't last, they'd already chatted late enough into the evening as it was. She leaned her head back against the soft material of the armchair, enjoying each and every second she had.

Finally she said, "Marie, I-I think I'm-no, I know I'm ready. I...let's get this over with."

"You've been ready for days if the weather's any indication."

"What a horrible time to tease me girl."

"You could use some teasing, if you don't mind me saying so your grace."

Elsa finally cracked an eye open to give the grinning redhead a critical stare down. The upward curl of her own lips betrayed her.

She let the eye drop shut again. "I suppose you're right at any rate. The...arousal," she half forced the word out, absurd given who she was talking to, "is something I've taught myself to keep contained in every way. I've spent so long with it acting almost as a backdrop to my life."

"I can't imagine what it's like being afraid of yourself like that."

"Marie, I'm starting to suspect you're pitying me."

"Would it be so wrong for me to?" If Elsa had been expecting any reaction to what she'd said, it wasn't a challenge. She opened her eyes fully, challenging right back.

"Yes," she said, "it would."

"And yet you are...pitiable." Elsa's mouth dropped in shock. Marie took advantage of her loss for words.

"But you don't have to be." With a final sip, Marie set her glass down on the table alongside Elsa's before she stood from her chair. Striding the short distance between them, Marie was soon standing before the still-shocked queen, her shadow stretching out over Elsa in a cool wave after the radiating heat of the fire.

"M-Marie?"

"You can take this back from your magic," the girl said, slowly stepping up to where the blond sat. "This doesn't have to be a monkey on your back."

"Marie, please," Elsa could feel her heart rate spike as the redhead once again tool hold of her two hands in her own. "I really think we should just deal wi-"

"What do you _want_ this to be, Elsa?" The girl towered over Elsa where she sat, expression far more stern than the gentleness in her voice.

"Wh-What?" Why was this girl, this peasant, making her tremble and stutter? Why was she breathing so deeply and fighting the urge to cross her legs under that intense stare? Why were those warm hands making her lips feel so dry?

"Do you want this to be something for you to just 'get over with'? Something that has to be 'dealt with'?"

Elsa's response caught in her throat.

"Something clinical?" Marie continued, "as emotionless as filing paperwork? I don't mind, if that's what you want. Something...cold."

The silence stretched between them, and even though the heat from the fire was no longer blaring in her face Elsa could feel the perspiration beginning to bead up on her skin.

"Or?" It came out as a whisper.

"Or do you want this to be more?"

"More?"

"More than just an extra duty. More than just something to shamefully slink your way to on the bad nights. Something to enjoy while we're young and we can delight in each other. What is it you want me to be, Elsa?"

The queen didn't dare even breathe.

"Am I your caretaker, or your lover?"

The darkness of Marie's shadow couldn't hide the lust Elsa saw reflected back at her in those wide, round eyes.

"_Lover,_" came out of her mouth in a rush of air, her body all but tensing up at the realization of what she'd said.

But the sudden avalanche of passion she'd been expecting, the clash of lips, the frenzied hands, failed to arrive. Instead Marie simply smiled and said, "good choice," and backed away, pulling Elsa from her chair by the hands. In a daze she stood obediently, not trusting herself to even think by this point.

"I'm scared," she whispered.

"It's alright," Marie assured, "we'll start off small and work our way there, don't you worry."

Elsa nodded, keeping her eyes locked on Marie's in case even the slightest glance at the rest of the world shattered her resolve.

"You've never kissed anyone, have you?"

"No."

"We'll start by fixing that, then."

"O-okay." Elsa's eyes darted down to Marie's lips. They looked soft, like the rest of her. She'd always liked how soft girls looked; could get lost in thoughts of what it would feel like to-

And then Marie was pressing gently up into her and for the first time in her life, with a rush of heat to her face, that softness was hers to experience. It was chaste and brief and delicate, and Marie squeezed Elsa's hands reassuringly while the blond settled into the feeling of their lips against each others until she backed away.

"How was that?"

Elsa's eyes were wide. "That was," her Adam's apple dipped, "soft."

That earned her a giggle as Marie let go of Elsa's hands to thread her arms around the queen's waist.

"Girl's are cuddly like that," she purred, drawing Elsa in closer. "Gentle... and smooth." Elsa's breath hitched at the proximity of Marie's face. Warm breath flowed over her mouth and if she could she would have drank it up at the source.

With a lurch it hit her that that was exactly what she could do. "Marie, can...?"

Marie complied without hesitation, hands sliding up Elsa's back to pull her into another, firmer kiss. This time the redhead tried coaxing Elsa's mouth open, sliding a curious tongue along Elsa's.

And this time, Elsa leaned into it, intoxicated with just enough lust and drink to wrap her own arms around Marie's back and help press their bodies together. The feeling of that supple chest pushing just under her own was sending tremors along her body. She wanted more, taking control and using her height advantage to dip Marie's pelvis into her.

It was Elsa who finally broke the kiss. The two leaned back panting, still in each others arms.

"Well," Marie croaked, "you're catching on fast."

"It has been a few days now," Elsa admitted, plucking absently at the material of Marie's dress that covered the girl's shoulder. The careful control over her desire was slipping away and the trepidation she had felt earlier was becoming more and more difficult to retreat to. She wanted this, and what's more, she wanted to want it.

"I...wouldn't be averse to taking this further by this point. I know you said we had all night, but-" Elsa was shushed by Marie's hand on her lips. The younger girl obviously knew what she meant, Elsa realized with a blush.

"Fortunately," Marie began explaining as she stepped away from Elsa, "I took it upon myself to prepare somewhat, against your earlier advice." Elsa was about to ask what she meant but her voice caught in her throat when Marie grabbed one of the sleeves of her dress and began sliding it over her head. Smooth fabric slid up to reveal slender calves, then strong, creamy thighs that went on and on until Elsa's gaze instinctively rocketed back up to a more becoming level.

Then the dress was off and tossed onto Marie's vacated chair and Elsa quickly realized what she had meant by 'prepare'.

"Ah," she breathed at the sight of the completely nude girl before her.

"I figured it would streamline things somewhat," Marie said, hiding behind a sheepish grin. Elsa just kept staring at her face, cheeks aflame and seemingly in a stupor, so she coaxed a little further. "Am I to your liking, your majesty?"

The honorific brought Elsa back to Earth. "Oh, y-yes, I'm-that is, yes! You are, yes." Her blush only deepened at Marie's short giggle.

Elsa looked like she was about to turn tail and flee at any second. Marie was so sure she had seen confidence beginning to blossom in the older girl too. Had it really only taken her getting naked to make the queen start shaking again?

"You know, you _are_ allowed to look at me, Elsa."

"Yes." The queen's eyes didn't budge.

With a roll of her own, Marie stepped back towards Elsa. "And...you may touch, as well."

"O-Oh," Elsa subconsciously wet her lips at the new proximity of her naked companion. Then her hand was being held, and then lifted, and before she could quite grasp what was happening Marie placed Elsa's palm against one of her breasts.

"See?" Marie chided, "they don't bite."

Elsa did even try retorting, too lost in a world of silken skin to be able to form coherent speech anyways. She furtively wrapped her fingers into Marie's breast, testing its weight and give. She had been wrong earlier; women weren't soft. They were something entirely more. There hadn't yet been words invented to speak of the inviting smoothness of the flesh in her hands. She faintly wondered if she herself would feel this way to the redhead. She hoped so. Nobody in the world deserved to be deprived of this feeling, as far as she was concerned.

"That's better," Marie's voice took on a sultry tone as she wrapped Elsa back into another kiss. As she pressed against Elsa, the blond's hand became trapped against her chest.

Elsa took that as a sign to keep touching, beginning to knead her breast more earnestly. Her free arm she wrapped around Marie's back, but had to stifle a whimper of surprise when Marie reached behind herself to forcefully move Elsa's hand down to a buttock. That elicited a moan from the smaller girl which Elsa ate up greedily. Her body was aflame, she simply couldn't get close enough to the young thing pressed so desperately against her, and her own pelvis was practically bucking at what contact they had. She was fairly sure she had long since ruined her bloomers.

"Turn around," Marie mumbled against her lips.

"Hmm?" Elsa's comprehension had long since abandoned her.

"Your dress," Marie clarified, "it has laces." She was, in fact, tugging pointedly on those laces as she spoke.

"Oh," Elsa squeaked through a suddenly constricted throat. "I see."

"Don't start getting shy on me now," Marie laughed, gripping Elsa's shoulders and gently turning her. "Trust me, you of all people have nothing to be ashamed of." With that, she set to work loosening the laces of Elsa's dress.

"You... You find me attractive?"

And just as quickly, she paused again. "Are you really asking me that?"

"What do you mean?" Elsa was beginning to squirm at the sudden stillness between them, facing away from Marie as they talked.

"Elsa, you're gorgeous. You..._do_ know that, right?"

Elsa looked down at herself. "I...suppose so? I've never really been able to tell when it comes to myself." She certainly was pleasantly slender, and she'd always known her skin was unnaturally smooth, had always been devoid of blemishes or hairs everywhere but her head. Magic, she had chalked it down to. A bizarre side effect.

Though, obviously nowhere near the strangest part of it.

But gorgeous? She honestly wasn't so sure. Her chest, in particular, while already modest, had never been especially flattered by corsets or bodices. She had always hoped that one day the pockets of baby fat still in her cheeks might migrate down and lend their efforts to her breasts. No such luck though.

"What, has nobody ever told you how beautiful your are?" Marie sounded flabbergast.

"Well, my family I suppose. But I guess it's not the same coming from them." Especially not from Anna.

No, Elsa shook herself. Now was not the time to think about her.

"Well if that's not criminal I don't know what is." The hands at her laces went back to work at that, Marie continuing with, "you should be told how beautiful you are every day."

"Thank you." This blush wasn't quitting anytime soon.

"I'm serious Elsa. You should hear what your people say about your looks."

"Oh? Wh...what do people say?"

Marie thought back over what she had just suggested. The drink was definitely getting to her.

"Uuh...on second though, you probably don't want to hear most of it."

"Oh..." There was clear dejection in Elsa's voice until she mercifully caught on. "Oh! Oh my..."

"Yeah..." Marie cursed herself. As if Elsa wasn't already bashful enough.

She finished the rest of the laces in silence. When she was done, she slowly began to slide it down Elsa's body, letting it pool at her feet. The blond looked down at the ring of cloth around her. Underneath it, she had her usual stockings and chemise protecting the last of her dignity.

She took a deep breath. This was it. No turning back from here.

With shaky fingers she carefully started to pull the stockings down her legs-hoping Marie didn't notice the large damp patch-kneeling down to get them the last of the way there. The fire, still going fairly strong, was warm against her bare bottom and legs. When she stood back up she reached for the hem of the chemise and lifted it over her head, feeling the warmth spread up her back and along her neck as her last article of clothing graced the floor.

She stood there, facing away from Marie, hesitant until two hands slid around her waist and wrapped around her bare belly.

"It's alright Elsa," she whispered in her ear, "I want you."

And that was all it took. Elsa turned around in Marie's arms, pressing into her with a light kiss. The contact of their bare skin made her knees weak. She had expected the redhead's hands to be roaming her body, but they stayed at the small of her back, which she was grateful for.

Once again, Marie had Elsa's hands in her own, and her eyes gave Elsa a quick once-over when the separated.

"Just like I thought," she whispered, "perfect."

Elsa could only blush and smile in response.

"Come with me to the bed, Elsa."

She followed obediently at Marie's tugging. The two of them slowly padded across the room until they were standing beside the large bed Elsa had inherited from her parents. A bed meant for two. Marie quickly seated herself down on Elsa's comforter, shimmying backwards and laying herself down against the pillows. Seeing Elsa had not moved, she reached her arms out encouragingly and Elsa complied, climbing to the bed on her knees and beginning to make her way over to the tantalizing display.

Marie spread her legs slightly as Elsa approached, allowing the older girl to ease herself onto Marie and capture her lips in another kiss. Elsa reveled in the yielding flesh of the girl below her, running her hands along her curves and crevasses, and when the dampness of Marie's sex pressed against her lower abdomen Elsa let out a low hiss of longing.

It was barely a minute of increasingly desperate touching and bucking hips and poorly restrained moaning before Marie could find the wherewithal to roll them over. Elsa didn't put up much of a fight, her arms weren't made for resistance, and she was hardly in the mood to try. When Elsa was finally secure under her, which took some hasty, breathless readjustment on Marie's behalf, they resumed their kisses. Only this time Marie was between Elsa's legs and it was Marie's hands working Elsa's flesh and kneading Elsa's breasts and pinching her nipples until the blond's back was arched into her and she was whimpering and mewling into Marie's lips.

The heat was unbearable. Elsa could hardly think. She had felt need before, felt desire, but never like this. This was miles beyond any desperation she had ever known. Her center throbbed, practically painfully, and she had long since lost control of the meager, pleading jerks she made into Marie's torso. Finally she lifted her head to pull away from the girl so she could beg for release.

"_Please,_" she moaned, "Marie..."

"Soon," came the response, sultry and low. Marie took some pity though, bringing her head low and planting kisses down Elsa's neck to her collarbone.

Mouth left unoccupied, Elsa's shaky breaths and poorly restrained squeaks of pleasure joined the crackle of the fire and the sounds of skin on skin. When Marie's mouth reached a pert nipple, a desperate "_ha_" of surprise tore from Elsa's throat. While Marie's kisses descended her stomach, Elsa writhed and moaned. By the time she placed a delicate kiss over Elsa's clitoris, the blond felt like she was about to burn up.

"I-I n..n_eed_-ha, need y-your-" Elsa's desperate pleading was cut short by Marie's tongue beginning to gently circle her nub. Every noise, every breath, caught in her throat. She was on fire, and Marie's tongue was searing rings into her.

Placing one hand just over Elsa's rear, where she could push the queen's hips towards her, Marie set to work applying all she had ever learned on the subject of satisfying a woman. Elsa was her queen, and no effort was spared to play on every one of her senses. Marie teased and sucked and licked and nibbled until Elsa's hands were curled around the back of her head and she was greedily thrusting into her lover's ministrations.

And just when Elsa thought she could take no more, Marie slid a long, slender finger inside her.

"_Ngh!_ _Marie!_" Elsa half screeched, shoulders leaving her pillow before slamming back down. "Oh..._god_ I'm...!"

She was close. So close. Marie quickly began pumping her finger into the young, quivering queen beneath her. She drew the soft nub at her tongue into her mouth, sucking aggressively at it, driving Elsa virtually insane with the intensity.

"Please," Elsa begged breathlessly, "p-please work!"

Marie made no move to indicate she had processed Elsa's desperate words, simply speeding up and hooking her finger up slightly.

"_Ha! _Oh god please, please, please..." Elsa repeated the plea into the Heavens, hands all but rubbing Marie against her core. And then there was a second finger pushing into her, stretching her out, burning against her soft, slick flesh. With a quiet desperate cry, as all her muscles locked up, Elsa reached her peak...

And exploded with a strained, keening whine. The world practically fell away as blissful relief burst through her body. Her tensed muscles began to shake and twitch out of control. Days and days of unfulfilled need released from her, with Marie there to lap up the spoils.

It took a long time for her to start coming down. Even to Marie, Elsa's peak seemed to drag on. The girl must have really been desperate, she realized.

So just as Elsa began to descend, Marie pressed her mouth back into the blond's flesh and, speeding up her fingers again, quickly pumped another orgasm out of her. This was the queen, after all, she figured, nuzzling happily into Elsa's twitching sex as the girl threw her head back a second time and barely restrained a howl that the newly redoubled pleasure was threatening to rip from her throat. And didn't the queen deserve the best?

Slowly, finally, Elsa returned to sanity. She was a panting, moaning mess, her hair was splayed out from its braid beneath her, her body was still twitching uncontrollably, and a line of drool had made its way down one of her cheeks. Below, she was quite certain she had made a chore of her bed, and of Marie's face.

And she felt _incredible_.

As her body began to relax and the stinging sensitivity between her legs subsided, Elsa let herself relax against the bed, staring up at the roof of its canopy. She didn't speak, probably couldn't have found any words if she'd tried. The only noises she made were the small gasps and twitches at Marie's tongue cleaning her up. There was no other way to put it, the service was practically royal.

She could get used to this.

And she hadn't thought of Anna once, she realized. The thought hit her like an avalanche. For a long, intimate stretch of time, her sister had been simply...gone from her life. Not pestering her every thought, not keeping her awake, not keeping her company, not haunting her dreams. She had simply experienced a moment without the redhead in any capacity. Maybe there was hope for her yet, though for some reason the thought didn't bring the joy she would have hoped for.

Letting go of Anna would be a difficult journey, no matter what.

Back in the present, the redhead who had most definitely been in her thoughts had finished eagerly wiping Elsa's juices from her face. She slid up beside the young blond, planting a quick kiss on her lips. Elsa's hand snaked around the back of her head before she could pull back, deepening their contact. An appreciative tongue slid across her lips, and she hummed when she realized Elsa was tasting herself. All in all, she decided, the young queen had made good progress tonight.

"Marie, I-words can't describe how-" once again Elsa was silenced by Marie's fingers at her lips.

"There's no need, your majesty," she said, relishing Elsa's shudder at her voluntary deference, "if I didn't love doing this, I wouldn't have volunteered to do it." It certainly wasn't a lie, and Marie probably would have taken up the offer to sleep with the gorgeous enigma in her arms with or without the more than generous retainer. Besides, she supposed as far as the usual fare of marrying off wealthy, attractive women was concerned, Elsa's first time was probably valued at entire kingdoms. It was a happy thought, and she was content to let it sing her to sleep.

"I...I suppose you're still-" Elsa was interrupted by a yawn, but carried on nonetheless, "still in need of, uh..."

Marie fought back a surge of pride at how well sexed Elsa looked, all yawns and drooped lids. "Go to sleep Elsa," she murmured, taking hold of the duvet and crawling up the bed to slide under it.

"No, no, it wouldn't be right if I just-"

"Elsa, you can barely keep your eyes open. Don't worry about me, I'm used to it."

Elsa huffed. Between Marie and her yawning she could hardly get a word in edgewise. But she was tired. "Fine," she acquiesced, beginning to move under the blankets herself.

"You'll be fine Elsa. Tomorrow night will be here before you know it and you'll be free to do _aaany_thing you want to me, how does that sound?"

It sounded good, but...

"Oh," Elsa mumbled, easing into her pillow, "but the cold doesn't usually start coming back for a few days, so..."

And then Marie was huddling into her, back pressed into Elsa's stomach. She instinctively put an arm around the redhead, something inside her, big and powerful and sated and content, purred at the connection.

"I wasn't aware I'd been moved back to 'appointment by necessity' status," the younger girl teased.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean why should we only do this to keep the bad weather at bay? I certainly enjoyed what we just had, and I like to think you felt somewhat partial to it yourself," Elsa snickered into copper tresses at that, "I see no harm in...exploring one another whenever the fancy strikes. What do you think?"

Elsa hadn't considered that. It seemed almost too good to be true. What they had done had been nice. _So_ nice. She almost didn't care for the merciless teasing Anna would subject her to for her earlier skittishness. She had enjoyed the night-was still enjoying the night. To think she could fall asleep with a warm, soft body in her arms every night just felt...

Right.

"Yes," she decided, "yes, absolutely."

"Good. I hadn't been looking forward to spending any nights alone in separate quarters."

"I get the sense you hadn't planned on it, either," Elsa said accusingly.

"Can you blame me? That's a waste of a perfectly ravishable young lady right there."

Elsa grinned, holding Marie all the tighter.

"Goodnight," she whispered.

"Mmh, goodnight," came the reply.

And Elsa began letting herself drift off. Her body was sated, her mind was dulled with liquor and drowsy afterglow, and for once in her life she was regaining control. The disease, and really it was she admitted with a cringe, was far from cured. But she had alleviated the symptom, and for now she could enjoy the wealth of time that brought her. If her other attempts were anything to go by, it would be years before Elsa ever had to worry-well, _truly_ worry-about her feelings for Anna.

And so, on that rare night, for that rare occasion, in the tired moments before sleep took her, Elsa tentatively let herself be happy.

* * *

><p>Anna sighed happily out the window as a sudden warm, winter breeze caressed her face. Elsa had done it. She felt like cheering across the fjord at the small pinpricks of light dotting the castle.<p>

"You know you're making it weird by doing that?" And there was Kristoff, ruining the moment.

"No I'm not," she shot back, "Elsa's my sister."

"Y..es?" Kristoff furrowed his brow, trying to figure out what exactly Anna was having trouble with here.

"Oh bugger off," Anna laughed, turning away from the window of Kristoff's small hut to where he lay, garbed only in a blanket and a thin sheen of sweat. "I just wanted to make sure everything went okay. There's nothing weird about that."

"It's a little weird that you're waiting for the exact moment that your sister has h-"

"_Okay_ that's enough of that sentence out of you!" Anna squeezed her eyes shut, trying to un-realize what she had just done. It made some part of her feel bad though. Like realizing all over again just how little her older sister was able to keep to herself. Thank god Arendelle at large was unaware of what the lapse in winter truly meant. Anna was fairly certain there was only so much mortification the timid Elsa was able to feel at one time without...she didn't know...bursting, or something.

They had already planned for the fire to have mostly burnt out by this point, so Anna was contend to slid her body back into bed, warm and snug against her mountain man's.

"Hey," Kristoff said, his tone softer now, consoling. "She'll be fine Anna. No matter what happens."

Of course Kristoff would have picked up on her lingering worry. "Thanks Kris," she mumbled against his chest. "I know she'll be fine. I just hope she doesn't show up to breakfast tomorrow in tears or something."

"I'm sure she's happy as a clam, snuggled up to some cutey with a big goofy grin plastered on her face," at his words, Kristoff threw a strong arm around a giggling Anna and snuggled her close. "Much like me."

Anna nuzzled happily into her lover. "Don't make it weird Kris."

"Oh c'mon I didn't mean it like that," the blond grumbled.

"Ssshhh. Go to sleep."

And he did, and so did she, and for the first time in days, on that rare night, for that rare occasion, Anna felt happy with all her heart.

* * *

><p><strong>What the fuck? Was this chapter...<em>happy?!<em> That's right. Well happy as can be considering we already know it's gonna go to shit within a matter of weeks. I figure if we're ever going to enjoy the downright soul shattering "big reveal" (I've got it planned out already, it's gonna be rough) we might as well have everyone falling from the highest heights. This chapter is also the longest so far, by like...twice as much as the next. I'm hoping that that trend won't continue though. That's not how I want the updates to go for this.**

**I'm really enjoying all the not-so-subtle baiting I can throw in from Anna. She was basically born for dramatic irony.**


	6. Chapter 6

It was one of those rare mornings where Elsa wasn't actually confused when she woke up. Everything made sense the moment she rejoined the world.

And it was nice.

The warmth of her bed was nice, the warmth of Marie was nice, the warmth of the sun pouring in from the window was nice. Softness surrounded her like a cocoon, caressing her naked flesh. Even the dull ache in her head from their indulgence the previous night seemed to dim in the face of everything that had gone right recently.

She didn't even blush when she realized she still had Marie's breast in her hand. With a wicked grin, she gave it a quick, furtive little squeeze, but the expression quickly faded when Marie began to stir. Oh well, she supposed she wouldn't have been able to admire that cute, scrunched up face forever anyways.

"Mmm..." Marie grumbled, muscles tensing and moving almost as though each one was being tested. Eventually she fell into a long stretch that pushed her chest into Elsa's hand, and yawned out a, "morning."

Elsa didn't respond, simply nuzzling her head into Marie's soft, red hair and drawing the girl closer to her. If the grandfather clock on the wall was anything to go by she was probably long due out of bed, but she couldn't find it in herself to care.

"Soft bed," Marie mumbled through her fatigue, "dry mouth, aching head, callous-free hand on my tit...I gotta wonder, what did I do so right yesterday?"

Elsa giggled at that. Obviously Marie and her did not share the blessing of an amnesia-free morning.

"Try: seducing the queen," she volunteered, hugging Marie all the tighter when the girl's body stiffened. It looked like her lover was the type to be more confident in the evenings.

"Mmh," Marie hummed, relaxing and rubbing her eyes, "right, you. Forgot about you."

"Just 'you'?" Elsa snicked nuzzling into Marie's hair. The girl still smelled like her perfume, but now with the undertone of dry sweat from the night before that Elsa was finding drove her just a little bit wild.

"Just you. That's all you have to be with me," was the reply Elsa had not expected. She decided she liked it.

"Just me," Elsa said back, closing her eyes again. There was plenty of time before she'd be missed at breakfast, she could afford to be lazy this once.

Then her stomach had to go and ruin it all by rumbling.

"On that note," Marie said after a quick giggle, "how does the food arrangement work around here?"

"Oh, um, I suppose you could have food sent to you in your room?" Elsa felt stupid for how little she'd planned this out. The past few days had really been taking their toll on her. "Or you can dine with the servants, if you prefer. I'm sorry, I'd like to invite you to sit with the princess and I, but.."

"I understand," Marie said, "you royals and your protocols." Well, at least the girl's mind had substituted a reason in for her. "I'll probably eat with the servants if it's all the same, I've never been much of the solitary type I'm afraid."

Now Elsa just felt guilty for leaving Marie alone in her room last night. "Yes, well...I'll direct you to the staff dining area, just say the word when you're ready to go..." she hoped it wasn't too desperate the way she trailed off.

Marie seemed to catch on though. "You're not getting rid of me that easily," she chastised, "you've got something you started last night that you didn't finish."

Elsa's face went scarlet and her throat seemed to squeeze all the dignity out of her voice. "A-Aha, right. I suppose I...may have left you a little high and dry?"

"Not the word I would have used for it."

"Oh my..." well, it was what she'd asked for.

"Oh my indeed," Marie purred, slowly guiding Elsa's hand lower.

* * *

><p>Head loosely planted in palm, Anna was making a poor effort to not fall asleep into her breakfast porridge. Mornings were a sacred time for Anna, not to be ruined by abominations like wakefulness, but she had still been intent on making the trek back to the castle from Kristoff's hut before the sun rose; she would be there for Elsa come hell or high water.<p>

Though she was getting a little sick of always being the first person in the dining hall. Much as she at least finally knew why Elsa had been so timid, it would have been nice to not have to wait half an hour every time she sat down to eat before her sister would show up. At least this time, she figured with a grin, Elsa could be getting delayed for...other reasons.

"You've got porridge on your chin," Anna jerked her head out of her bowl at the sound of Elsa's voice. She hadn't even noticed the creak of the old wooden door as the queen made her entrance.

"Elsa! Hey," she said with forced energy, searching desperately for a napkin.

"Morning Anna," Elsa through a small stretch before seating herself across from her sister. She wasted no time piling her plate with food, oblivious to the toothy grin Anna was shooting her way.

"Work up an appetite recently?" the redhead teased, stuffing her mouth with a cut of eel. She'd been looking forward to this more than she'd care to admit.

"Fine," Elsa groaned through a smirk, "you got me, you were right, it wasn't horrible."

Anna restrained the squeal of delight that threatened to tear out of her, forcing herself to swallow her food before she carried on gloating. "No, no hold up," she said when she had, "say it again."

"What?" Elsa asked with a quizzical look.

"You heard me. You're not getting off the hook that easy Elsa. Tell me I was right again. Slower this time. I want to savor-_augh_!" Anna dodged a loaf of bread. "Oh come on!" she groaned at a smirking Elsa, "I _was_ right!"

"And now you _are_ obnoxious," Elsa shot back, tucking into her breakfast.

Anna entertained a small, bemused exhale before going back to her food. "I see you didn't bother bringing your new friend with you," she said, hoping Elsa wouldn't pounce on her uncertain use of the word 'friend'.

But Elsa chose a different route to derailment. "I notice _you_ didn't bother bringing Kristoff with you," she pointed out.

"Alright, well I'll bring him next time and you bring your girl, deal?"

Elsa winced in regret. "I'd rather our mealtimes just be between the two of us, if it's all the same to you."

"You always say that," Anna whined, "I swear Elsa, if this is some 'no filthy peasants at the table' thing for you I'm gonna be so-"

"It is _nothing_ of the sort, as well you know," Elsa interrupted, laying the affectation of offense on as much as she dared. "I just...value our time together, alright?" and that was true enough that she didn't need to pretend.

Anna slumped back in her chair, arms folded. "Fine, you win, no filthy peasants at the table."

"_Anna!_"

"Okay to be fair, Kristoff does kind of smell like a barn basically all the time," Anna gushed through her restrained laughter.

Elsa's response was simply a dumb, "oh?" far too interested in Anna speaking ill of Kristoff to keep the air of disinterest alive.

"Ugh, yeah, I actually had to make him jump in the lake last night, which was still mostly iced over by the way, before I'd let him into bed with me because-"

"_No!_" Elsa barked out in a panic, "conversation's over."

"What? Oh, seriously Elsa? You can't still be _that_ much of a virg-_hey_, where are you going?"

Elsa, who had gotten to her feet, was scooping up her plate and utensils and singing out, "breakfast is _ooooveeeer!_"

"Come on you big wuss, trading stories is half the fun!"

"I did not volunteer for that part of this I just control the weather!"

"Get back here Elsa don't you walk out on-_Elsa!_ Oh for goodness sake." Anna deflated in a peeved huff as the door to the dining room slammed shut behind her sister.

But then she started laughing, and so did Elsa, for a long, long time, because even those few short days had been far, far too long for the queen to not be her usual, giddy self.

Neither sister had any trouble finishing their breakfasts that morning.

Because Elsa was back.

* * *

><p><strong>Three Days Later<strong>

"Elsa? Elsa tell me what's happening. Tell me how to make this better Elsa!"

Elsa didn't reply, simply curling up around Marie's hand and carrying on with her devastated sobbing.

"_No!_" she wailed aloud, "no no no not again not again please not again!"

"Elsa what's going on? We can fix this Elsa, just take a deep breath and tell me what to do."

Elsa's hips jerked violently into the fingers that had been trying, for the better part of a minute, to send Elsa to her completion. "It-It's happening again I-I can't...God I can't...it's not _working!_" she shrieked, her whole body tensing up with the sheer rage she poured into her last word.

Marie had heard enough to know-had been told enough to understand, by that point. The heartfelt confessions and time spent falling asleep in one anothers arms, while brief, had been plenty enough for Elsa to reveal...not everything, but enough.

"Say her name," Marie said, looking just as awestruck as Elsa when she looked at her lover.

"Say her name," the younger girl repeated.

Elsa's eyes slammed shut and her head shook wildly, too little control from the jittery bolts Marie's fingers were sending through her.

"Elsa, it's okay, I've told you a thousand times, I don't care. There is nobody in the world it could be that would change what we have, please, _please_ just say it."

And because she knew Marie was telling the truth, and because she was desperate, and because _somebody_ needed to know, Elsa clenched every muscle in her body and took a deep breath and right there, and then, wriggling around at the edge of bliss, whispered...

"_Anna._"

And it was a long time before she came down to face the consequences.

They lay there for a bit, Elsa keeping to her side of the bed where she wouldn't have to feel Marie flinching away from her. The silence was far too overwhelming for Elsa not to let a tiny sob escape. Marie let her sniffle for a while before speaking.

"If you want me to go, I'll go," she said, slowly, choosing her words with great care. "But I meant what I said. We're still...this is your business Elsa, if that's how you want to keep it. This doesn't change anything."

"I-It w-wasn't supposed to ha-happen again so soon," Elsa whispered, tears rolling down her face. "It w-was supposed to t-take years."

There was something sickening and painful about watching the queen be reduced to such a miserable creature. Something that made Marie turn her head away for a moment before remembering herself.

"Hey," she spoke softly, like she would to a spooked animal, "c'mere, Elsa. Come on," she coaxed, holding her arms out. Little by little, Elsa unfurled at her beckoning. "Hey now, it's fine. It still works, and that's all that matters for now, okay?"

Elsa nodded, slowly shimmying across the bed until she was settled under the covers, safe and warm in Marie's soft embrace.

"Okay," she whispered.

* * *

><p><strong>Uber short chapter, even for this fic, but we needed it. We're about 1, maybe 2 at worst, chapters away from <em>this<em> fic's Big Reveal, and this one'll be all sorts of entertaining. It's also forever away, and you can thank exams, my birthday, my sister's birthday and Christmas for that.**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN EDIT: Might as well stick this here. As one anon mentioned, yes, the title for this fic is shit. It came about while we were talking over the prompt, and when I originally fulfilled it I just used it as a stand-in. I figured nothing would come of the fic beyond a oneshot so I kept the title for the FFnet upload and here we are, awkwardly avoiding looking at it or thinking about it too much. Sadly, it cannot be changed, so instead it'll serve as a reminder to the fact that this _is_ still just a porn-with-plot.**

* * *

><p><strong>One Week Later<strong>

Elsa's voice caught in her throat when the door to the boardroom inched open and Anna slipped in. A few heads turned around at the disturbance that had silenced their queen.

"Ah, princess Anna," the mayor greeted, "what an unexpected surprise to see you here."

"Yes," another man-some duke or another whose name Anna had happily forgotten-agreed, "do take a seat. I believe her majesty was just about to enlighten us on the matter of these sporadic, ah, seasonal discrepancies we've been experiencing."

"Y...es," Elsa said as Anna took a seat. Her sister was staring hard at her, and she did not look happy. Elsa had already been nervous at her councilmen's probing question, now Anna's presence was looking to stir her into full blown trembling.

"Oh good," Anna said, her voice haughty and cold, "why don't you 'enlighten' us, Elsa, as to why it's snowing outside _again._"

She was angry. Of course she was angry, and why should Elsa have expected anything different? Her sister was sweet and understanding, but she wasn't a saint.

"W-Well," Elsa began, "it's, uh, we've been...I've been working on a solution that doesn't seem to-"

"Speak up Elsa!" the mayor laughed, interrupting Elsa's directionless rambling, "we can hardly make out a word of your mumbling!"

Elsa looked down, face tinging with red. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she pressed on, stronger this time. "There have been some...problems recently, concerning my powers, as I'm sure you're all aware. I have been, uh...I've been trying to solve them, but..." why was this so _hard?!_ Why did she feel so ashamed of admitting her loss of control to these men?

"But what, ma'am? We were informed that this issue was resolved on the fjord," a minister pointed out. Charged with protection of the realm, his was not input Elsa could take lightly.

"Yes, it was," Anna said from where she sat, arms folded, near the back of the room. "True Love, I think it was, that we figured the answer ended up being, wasn't it sis?"

Elsa cringed at being referred to as 'sis' in the company of her peerage. A few eyes darted between them in curiosity as bottoms shifted uncomfortably on seats.

"A touching sentiment," the minister said, "but you'll forgive me for saying that the trust we placed in your judgment over this power is waning." He waited for Elsa to nod in embarrassment before continuing, "in the past you have declined our suggestion that you collaborate on the matter with others who may come to understand you. I know I am not alone in thinking it best that we resubmit that possibility."

"I have a kingdom to run," Elsa protested, "and I haven't the time to be searching for drawn out explanations to my magic. I need real solutions, and I need them now."

"Impermanent solutions aren't effective, ma'am. Do you know the damage even an hour of frost can do to the farmlands? There will be people dying this winter, and the next, and the next after that. Do us all the justice of considering this a wasted summer, and looking to preserve the ones that follow, I implore you. We have countless universities listed that would devote their every resource to solving this. These are men of reason and intellect, your grace, the minds that will shape the future if you'll just let yourself be part of it."

It was Anna's uncharacteristically formal voice that saved her. "Elsa's magic isn't a thing of reason, minister. The queen is right in thinking this is a waste of time. No man, no matter how clever, will ever come to understand it, much less rein it in."

It was then Elsa knew what she had to do. For Anna, for everyone.

"I'll leave," she said, forcing strength into her voice from somewhere in her she didn't know she had. "Not permanently," she added as Anna opened her mouth to protest. "I'll find somewhere distant and cold, somewhere my winters will go unnoticed at all times, and I'll study my own magic, practicing and learning to control it until I feel it's safe that I return."

"Elsa-" but once again Elsa cut her sister off.

"Anna, this is the only way, we both know it. Arendelle will pass to you, so I'll need you to be-"

"_Elsa!_" Anna finally cut in, loud enough that the room hushed, "will you _listen_ to me? You _can't_ leave, it won't matter soon anyways!"

Elsa stared at Anna for a long time, unsure of what to make of what she was saying. When she didn't speak, Anna went on. "I started looking into the reports of frost last week. Remember the first time, when you froze the fjord? It wasn't just the fjord last time. It was most of Arendelle."

Elsa's stomach lurched. Somehow, she just knew where this was going.

Anna held up her hand, clutching an envelope that Elsa hadn't realized she'd been holding. "This arrived just this morning. Our eastern border has iced over into Norway. They think they're under attack."

The mayor's brow creased in thought. "So you're saying...?"

"I'm saying it's spreading. I'm saying that we don't know how far it's going to go. The continent? The world? I'm saying that you can't run from this, Elsa. Not again."

Dread coursed through Elsa's body, painting her skin with panicked heat-contrary to which was the frost that began crackling at the windows. Every head turned towards the noise, and then back at Elsa in worried silence.

"This meeting is adjourned," Elsa quavered, "you...you all need to leave." There was no disagreement there, and the room was soon empty save for her.

Her and Anna, who had of course stayed behind.

"Elsa," Anna began.

"Not now."

"_Yes_ now, Elsa! Why are you doing this _again!_ What is so hard about-God, I don't know, about _telling_ me what's going on?!"

Elsa recoiled at her sister's anger. She had only ever heard Anna use this tone of voice once before, and it had dragged uncomfortable secrets out of her then, too.

"Anna, please-"

"No, you need to tell me what's happening Elsa, _right_ now."

"_It stopped working again!_" Elsa snarled, her hunched form springing back to full height at the outburst. "Don't you get it Anna?! We've been trying for two whole days now and it's _not working!_"

Anna was silent for a moment, the two girls glaring at each other, before her expression softened and she said, "then I'm sorry, Elsa, but...you know what you have to do now."

"No," Elsa backed away, rapidly shaking her head in panic, "no, I won't-I can't. I'll just find another way, I'll think of something."

"Look, it doesn't have to be some horrible, drawn out thing the way you think it does. Maybe get your, uh..."

"Marie," Elsa filled in, realizing for the first time that she'd never even told Anna Marie's name. The girl must have been like a ghost to her sister, diligently avoiding her in the halls and keeping out of sight.

Just one more thing she had to thank Marie for.

"Marie. Alright, well Marie could, y'know...get you going," even Anna was blushing at that, "and then this mystery woman of yours could come in just to finish..." she trailed off as Elsa resumed shaking her head, slow and sad.

"Marie...she's not doing _anything_ for me anymore. Her touch just...it's like nothing," and now there were tears in her eyes. How odd, Elsa thought, that it would be that of all things. All at once Elsa realized just how tired she was. How tired of the scrutiny and the hiding and the misery and all of it.

Most of all, Elsa was just so, so tired of crying.

But then Anna was sweeping her up in a hug, and there was nothing she could do to stop herself. It was loud, and messy, and snotty, and undignified, and Elsa didn't care. Not by this point.

And Anna just held her, all anger gone at the sight of Elsa's tears, just stroking her hair, holding Elsa close to her, still not understanding, not really, but content to be there for her anyways.

"Do you think it's a mood thing?" Marie asked later that night, looking up at Elsa from her position curled up against the queen. "I know for me I've always got to be kind of calm and ready to get into it. Are you sure you're not just stressing yourself out with all this? I certainly couldn't blame you."

"No," Elsa said sadly, "as I'm sure you can imagine, mood has...never been an issue for me. Even when I was younger, hidden away from myself and...and scared all the time, even then there was always this separation I felt with my lust." Elsa paused to try and put her thoughts to words, struggling even through the comfortable rapport her and Marie had.

"I guess it's almost like a separate feeling from the rest of my mind. No matter how lonely, or sad, or angry, or scared I felt, there was always this heat that could somehow exist in me at the same time. I guess it sort of worked out in the end."

Marie looked taken aback at that. "What do you mean, 'worked out'?"

Elsa shrugged. "I spent a lot of time being sad, angry and scared."

Marie blinked a few times, then simply nuzzled her head into Elsa's neck. She didn't say anything, didn't really need to. She already knew how much it meant to Elsa to just have her there.

The silence was soon after interrupted by a knock on the bedroom door.

"Mmh, that'll be brandy," Marie murmured, getting out of bed to answer it. "I'm telling you, I could get used to this room service business."

Elsa smiled, leaning back to watch Marie plod over to the door. "Hey Kai," the girl greeted as she grabbed the latch and pulled, "you can just-oh."

Anna's head peaked around the door frame, a meaningful stare shot Elsa's way as she waved a bottle. "Room service!" she chirped, before striding purposefully into Elsa's bedchambers.

Elsa's heart could have erupted from her chest. She bolted upright, eyes wide in fear, shouting, "Anna! Anna what-what are you doing this is my room! Y-you can't-"

"I'm delivering your brandy," Anna said, stalking towards where Elsa lay beneath her sheets. "And I'm getting a look at this 'friend' of yours cause I figure, hey, you're not doing anything about this winter, and I know basically everyone you know, right?" Elsa's eyes shot to Marie, who had pressed herself back against the far wall behind Anna as the princess rambled with forced aplomb.

"Anna, no, you...you have to leave!" Elsa begged, but it was no use.

"So I figure," Anna said, whirling around to face a terrified Marie, "you probably chose someone who looks a whole lot like...like..." the sentence died on her lips and Elsa froze in horror as Anna's eyes roamed Marie's face. Her soft cheeks, thin lips, round eyes.

That red hair with the single braid Marie hadn't quite finished undoing.

None of them moved a muscle. Elsa was sure she was going to run out of air soon. She needed to breathe. Somebody needed to move. Something had to _happen._

"Elsa...?" Anna didn't sound commanding anymore; now she was timid and confused and frightened. "Elsa...what is this?"

Marie was the next to release a breath, and this one fogged out in front of her.

"I should...I'll go," she squeaked, quickly shuffling towards the door. With one last, forlorn look at Elsa-a look that made Elsa want to tell her to stop and come back and be there for her-she disappeared from sight and brought the door to a soft close behind her.

Anna made no move to turn around and face her older sister. "Elsa," she whimpered again, and this time her voice was shaking almost as much as she was, "Elsa...Elsa say something. T-Tell me this isn't what it looks like Elsa, please." Finally Anna risked a look back behind her.

Elsa's hands were covering her face, peering at Anna through her fingers with wide, wet eyes. Every breath she took shuddered out of her, broken only by the occasional sniffle. It said all Anna needed to know.

"No," Anna whispered, slowly shaking her head and backing away, "Elsa...no. No, no, no, please...please tell me this...this isn't..." Her back hit the wall and she slid down it, cupping a hand to her mouth.

Elsa could hardly hear through the adrenaline, the world fading into sharply muted focus until the staccato jumps of the fire and the thunderous bass of her own heart were all that were really registering. All she could think was that it shouldn't have been like this.

Not like this.

Anything but this.

_"Anna I'm so sorry,_" rushed out of her all at once, the breath she'd been holding finally releasing into the one thing she knew she felt. The world began bleeding back into her senses where she could see Anna hunched over, hand still on her mouth, breaths coming short and fast, fresh tears streaming down her face.

It was almost silly, some detached part of Elsa realized, how there had always been this small, shimmering hope in her heart that she could never have admitted to that Anna would have secretly harbored feelings for her in return. How many nights had she entertained the fantasy of Anna answering her tearful admission by sweeping her into a hug? Seeing her now, curled up, silently sobbing, staring at Elsa with those round eyes that ran so painfully deep with betrayal...

Elsa knew. And she knew that look. The one her mother had given her the first time she'd ever hurt Anna. Why couldn't she ever escape that look? The one that silently begged to know...

_How could you?_

Why couldn't she ever stop hurting Anna?

"Every time," Anna choked, "every time you...and every time it's snowed out of season? And...oh God..."

Elsa's mouth worked furiously to come up with a response; to apologize again, or tell her to stop, or anything.

"A-And I was _with_ you some of those times," Anna went on, growing louder and higher pitched. "And it was 'cause y-you...you just..."

Elsa finally found her voice. "I never wanted this," she breathed, voice still caught by her palms over her face. "God I tried...I tried everything to make it stop, I swear, I swear to God Anna I-I can't tell you how sorry I am."

"So all this time, all these years, you've...you've looked at me like that? You've seen me, and you've felt..." Anna couldn't even say it. She needed this to stop, for it to go away-far away, where it couldn't hurt her anymore. She wanted to run, to dive under her bedsheets and escape the nightmare her own sister had brought down on her. Instead, all she did was scoot a bit closer to the fire to escape the steadily dropping temperature that marked Elsa's own mortification.

There it was, finally. And of course all the dots were connecting now in Anna's mind. All the secrecy, the misery, the refusal to tell her anything. She was the mystery woman, the one the mighty queen pined for.

'Lucky' by Anna's own words.

"How," she asked, her cold tone making Elsa's shamefully downcast eyes snap back up again. "How can you-how can you even feel like this about me?"

Elsa's head fell back down, burying back in hands. "I don't know!" she sobbed, "I don't know what it is or why it keeps forcing itself into my mind! I keep trying to make it go away, I swear-I swear to you I've tried _so hard_ to make it stop but itjust _won't!_" Elsa was descending into hysterics, beginning to hyperventilate. "Oh God please forgive me Anna, I'm so sorry. Anna...Anna I'm so sorry, I'm _so sorry Anna!_"

And then Anna was laying on her side, crying because Elsa was crying and because everything was so wrong and so broken and she didn't know how to put it all back together this time. There wasn't a quest to go on, or a fairytale solution. There was just...this, spiraling into forever down the event horizon where her thoughts refused to take her.

"I w-wanted to leave," Elsa was wailing, "I wanted to go somewhere f-far away where I couldn't h-hurt you, but...but now I can't even do that! I don't even kn-know how to keep you safe anymore..."

Anna hadn't come dressed for the cold that was wafting off her sister. She dragged herself closer to the fire, hoping Elsa wouldn't frost it over by accident, and huddled there, trying to get herself back together. The cold was a sickening reminder that this wasn't some passive thing they could just pretend never happened.

"Elsa," Anna murmured, just loud enough for Elsa to hear and look up. "Elsa...what now?"

Elsa looked at her, then followed her eyes along the frost coating the room to the window where the shutters clacked and the wind screamed against the castle walls.

Anna paused a second to sniffle, her nose running from crying and cold, before going on. "We can't ignore it," she said.

"No," Elsa said, not turning away from the window, "we're-I won't let you, Anna. I won't hurt you like that. Not like that." Despite her constricted throat, more than anything now, Elsa sounded dead. Defeated.

"We don't...really have a choice." Anna began dragging herself to her feet. One more nightmare to go, she told herself. Then she could sleep. Or not, as it would probably end up being.

"I'm not subjecting you to that, Anna, I love you too-" but Elsa cut herself off, realizing what she'd said. That, she knew, wasn't something she got to say to Anna anymore.

"You're right," Anna's voice joined her sister's deadpan as she walked out of the circle where the frost ended in reverence to the fire, the only living thing in the room. "You do love me too much."

Elsa recoiled at Anna's words and approach, scooting back until her back bumped against the headboard of her bed and she drew her covers up to her chest for protection. "Anna, wait," she tried, "th-there might still be another way."

"What alternative is there now, Elsa?" Anna wondered, staring Elsa down as she spoke, "I think it's pretty obvious that this has to involve me by this point."

Elsa raked her mind for options. There had to be _some_ other way. "M-Maybe...Maybe I could...if I just _see_ you...? If I could look at you, and then that would be enough?"

Anna didn't bother hiding the hopeful tone in her voice when she asked, "d'you think that would do it?" It was stupid, and desperate, but they both wanted it to work too much.

"Oh Anna..." Elsa sighed, "Anna I don't know. I don't know anymore...what to do. It's all so mixed up in my head."

Anna folded her arms, eyes boring into Elsa. "Really? That's all you've got? The best you can do is 'I don't know'?"

"_Anna!_" Elsa shouted, before immediately checking herself. "Sorry, I...I'm sorry, it's...yes. Yes that's the best solution I have. I'm sorry..." It wasn't like she was in any place to call Anna to task for her temper.

Anna cast her eyes about the room, looking for a way to facilitate the task.

And also to spare herself having to look at her sister any longer.

There was a chair by the fireplace that seemed acceptable, so she went over to it and dragged it around until it faced Elsa's bed, moving it forward a few feet.

Elsa watched from where she sat up in her bed as Anna gathered her nightwear up and carefully sat herself down on the chair. Her posture was poised and elegant, to match a face as cold and expressionless as the rest of the room. Her Anna, her beautiful Anna, displayed like some sacrificial offering.

"Well?" Anna blurted out, bringing Elsa back to the present, "are you going to...get going?"

Elsa's arms wrapped more securely around her middle. She wanted to run; bolt out the door and down the halls and out the gate and away back up the mountain where she knew she couldn't hurt anyone.

But that wasn't true anymore. Now there was nowhere to hide where her disease couldn't find Anna, and it made the unforgiving, judgmental glare Anna was giving her all the worse.

"C-C-Could...Could y-you c-close your eyes?" Elsa spluttered, "I'm s-sorry, I just c-can't...when you l-look at me."

Anna rolled her eyes before shutting them. "There," she muttered, "now come on, enough stalling Elsa. Let's just get this over with so I can leave."

"K-Kay." Elsa tried to get her trembling under control, taking a second to let her eyes glide over Anna. Even through the fear, and the loathing, and the shame, the yearning for her roared as loud as ever. Elsa kept her mind focused on that as her hand slipped under the blankets and between her legs. She could do this.

It was almost impossible at first, between the shaking and nerves, but eventually she tried to get a rhythm going with her fingers and hips. She saw Anna's knuckles turn white where her hands gripped her dress. Elsa couldn't imagine what it was like for Anna. How disgusted and embarrassed she must feel on display like that. Degraded. Like a piece of meat.

It was after a few minutes of silence and a pitiful sniffle from Elsa that Anna began to grow truly impatient. "Elsa, how much longer is this going to take?" she hissed. When Elsa didn't respond she cracked one eye open, immediately regretting it at the sight of her sister's distraught face ogling her, and the twisting shadows of rapid motion under the blanket. She closed the eye again in repulsion.

But then Elsa sobbed, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry Anna..."

"What? What now?" Anna opened her eyes fully this time, to see Elsa hunched over, arms clung back around herself.

"It...It's not working."

"What do you mean it's not working?"

"It's the same as with Marie, I'm sorry. I'm trying."

"Try harder."

"I'm sorry Anna, i-it's not enough, it _won't work!_"

Anna bared her teeth. "_Make_ it work," she snarled.

"I _can't_..." Elsa moaned, huddling further up against herself and

Anna saw Elsa jump in shock at the deafening _bang_ of the chair crashing against the wall, but she didn't care.

"_For GOD'S sake Elsa!_" Anna bellowed, "_will you get yourself together!?_"

And it wasn't even the thick, jagged spikes of ice that shot out of the corners of the room.

Nor was it the long, drawn out, inhuman scream of agony that tore itself out of Elsa's throat that hit Anna particularly hard.

It was the way Elsa scuffled back in sheer terror from her younger sister, arms scrabbling pathetically above her head until her hands found purchase on a pillow and clutched it over her face where it muffled the sobs that were still more like screams. It was the barest Elsa had ever been laid before her, reduced to a sad, sorry, cowering creature, so desperate to hide away from Anna that she'd resort to anything.

Something in Anna switched on at how utterly she had destroyed her sister in a moment of juvenile frustration. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. This wasn't who either of them were supposed to be.

She slumped, the fight leaving her, and walked slowly over to where Elsa lay, still on her back, still practically shouting in pain into the pillow that she pressed against her face for some meager scrap of protection. Anna might have thought she looked stupid in other circumstances, but here it just drove home how long Elsa had been living with this, suffering in silence so Anna wouldn't have to.

Elsa jerked away when she felt the bed dip from Anna's knee, but otherwise didn't move beyond squeezing her pillow tighter and shaking a little more. Anna brought her other knee onto the bed and inched closer to the distraught mess. When Elsa didn't do anything, besides her slowly quietening cries, Anna reached out a hand towards the edge of the blanket.

Her new-found courage didn't last her too long, and her hand hesitated partway there. There could be some other way, after all. Some option they hadn't considered. Something they hadn't explored.

As if reading her thoughts, Elsa's muffled, tentative voice said, "please don't." All it managed to do, though, was remind Anna that if this was going to be fixed, she would be the one to do it. She had to be the strong one here.

Because it was cold outside, and people were dying.

"Just think of something else," she said, finally forcing her hand under the duvet. The trail she ran down Elsa's pelvis brought out a shudder that drove home the truth of how the queen felt. Some part of Elsa, carnal and beyond control, was craving this.

Anna quickly thrust her hand further down, haphazardly pressing in between Elsa's legs and beginning to rub in a slow circle, hoping she was moderately close to that special spot. Between the puffy, squishy texture she could feel beneath the silk, and the renewed sobbing from above, it at least seemed she had.

"Anna no!" Elsa cried for the hundredth time that night, hand leaving the pillow to pull Anna away. Anna was too fast though, catching Elsa's hand as she continued her work, feeling Elsa's strength leaving her even as she continued to protest.

"Oh God no! Anna no please-_please_ don't do this. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, please don't do this!"

Anna put Elsa's arm back over the pillow, wordlessly. Elsa grabbed it again, pressing it to her face and holding it until her own knuckles went white. All the while, Anna worked at her, and all the while she apologized. Anna didn't speak, or look at what she was doing. Her eyes were glued to the headboard, trying to think about what Kristoff might be up to. What she would tell him of this. If anything.

When Elsa began to twitch against her, Anna nearly fled. The nightgown had started soaking through as well, she noticed with a grimace. She could feel Elsa's heat radiating from under her fingers, and when Elsa sobbed then neither of them could tell what it was born of.

Elsa's face was drenched from the wet fabric pressing down on it, but she didn't dare take it off. Anna couldn't see her now, and there was something about that that helped, if only slightly. Everything else she'd given away, this one last ounce of privacy was all she could cling to. Now, though, it was her voice betraying her, sobs becoming pants becoming small mewls. If she'd thought the change from her own touch to Marie's had been intense, the feelings Anna was giving her were nearly impossible to keep hidden. Her hips were moving to the jolts of pleasure, and her belly was clenching so desperately it was practically painful. Every second was bliss to her body.

She hated every second.

She needed more.

"A-Anna...I'm s-sorry, please...please g-go f-faster..."

Anna grit her teeth and obeyed, pressing a little harder and moving her hand in quicker circles. She wanted to snap at Elsa for telling her what to do, wanted to tell her to hurry up.

"It'll be over soon, I promise," she said instead.

"Okay. Th-Thank you..." was the response.

And it was. Elsa's hips began bucking shamelessly, her moans choked and thick with little restraint.

"O-Okay, Anna this is-" Elsa warned, unable to stop her body from greedily pushing into Anna's hand, "Anna it's almost...I'm-" and then she was spilling over, and it was so good it almost hurt. Elsa could feel herself dripping down her legs and quickly soaking through her gown and over Anna's fingers. Her legs shook so violently one fell off the side of the bed and something approaching a strangled squeal erupted from her mouth, only to be swallowed up by the fabric enveloping her face. It was better than she'd ever imagined it would be. Anna was bliss, pure and raw.

Anna withdrew her hand once she was sure that Elsa had...well.

She was in a daze, watching her sister twitch and spasm from what she'd done. Her fingers were wet enough that the small eddies of air felt cool against her skin. Wet enough from Elsa. She discreetly wiped them off on the duvet, not that Elsa would have noticed anyway.

She sat there for a while, legs tucked under her. Even long after Elsa had come down, long after Elsa was done her soft, pathetic weeping. Long after all the apologies she met with silence. Her breath no longer fogged through the room, and both her and Elsa's nightgowns were stuck to their skin from sweat. Anna waited for a long time.

Elsa never once heard her voice, and Anna never once saw Elsa's face.

When her feet touched the floor, they left small footprints in the slight dampness. When she passed the chair, she didn't right it. When the door was closing slowly shut behind her, the brandy she'd placed on the dresser was no longer in the room.

It was then, and only then, that Elsa's eyes peeked up over the brim of the pillow to stare at the door Anna had left through.


	8. Chapter 8

Anna slunk.

She hadn't wanted to get out of bed. She had initially been quite happy to wait out her first hangover in the relative safety of her blankets, subsisting solely on the glass of water she'd set out for herself the night before.

But hangovers, apparently, meant hunger. Intense, burning hunger.

The fact that she could even feel hungry was its own sort of astounding, given the incredibly potent desire to vomit all at the same time. Why had nobody ever told her about the hunger? Although Anna supposed if she was going to be going down that road in her mind, there were a lot of things she'd wished she'd learned about alcohol before last night, and not after. Chief among them being what "lightweight" actually meant.

The bright side at least being that the bottle wasn't even half empty. She was sure in better circumstances she'd never want to touch it again, but now...

And so she slunk, through halls and down steps, regretting every second of sending Kai away without thinking to get him to bring breakfast to her room. She'd hoped he'd have come back at some point before her stomach drove her out bed, but no such luck.

Either way, she reflected gloomily, at least she'd probably waited enough time for her si...for the dining room to be empty.

Anna frowned as she approached the door to the dining area. Usually she'd have encountered a servant by now that she could have instructed to just bring her food to her. More importantly, she'd also usually have smelled the enticing aroma of hot food wafting out at this distance. Thinking was proving quite difficult in her poor state, and it was only when she started pushing the freezing cold door that she realized her mistake.

It was bad. The worst of the frost was gathered around Elsa herself, thick on the floor behind her chair, from which her back was turned to Anna, and coating the plates and bowls in front of her. The rest of the room, spreading out from her, wasn't much better, save for the small dry patch under the glow of a hastily lit fireplace.

Anna swallowed, feeling her heart go haywire. What was she doing here? Had Elsa gotten the same idea as her and tried to show up later to avoid her?

No, she realized. Elsa hadn't even turned to look at her, and creeping further into the room she could see her sister's eyes were glued to the far wall. For a moment she almost considered putting a hand on Elsa's quivering shoulder, but the wave of revulsion the thought brought only compounded the roiling of stomach.

Instead she carried on around the far side of the table, almost making it past before the scraping of a chair from the middle of the room made her turn her head. Elsa had finally noticed her at the corner of her eyes and was out of her stupor, standing up and staring at her wide eyed, mouth open in a gasp.

"'m sorry, I-I didn't think..." she whispered, but Anna ignored her, scooping up some of the bread that was further away from the distraught queen and taking it over to the fire where she seated herself on the floor. It was damp, but she was past caring.

Grabbing a fist-sized bun, Anna set about brushing the small amount of frost off its crust. Then she simply held it out in front of the fire and waited for it to warm up a little. Behind her she imagined Elsa would be back to staring down at her lap guiltily like she usually would be. Like some poor, abused puppy, always the most miserable thing in the room.

Anna tore a bite from the bun. The crust was soggy and the bread was cold enough to hurt her teeth. The second it touched her tongue it seemed to suck every last precious drop of moisture from her already parched mouth. She chewed slowly, painstakingly trying to get the bread to cooperate in the arid wasteland behind her teeth. Nonetheless, when she swallowed it she could feel her stomach begin to settle at last.

"Sh-Should I go, Anna?" Anna tore off another bite of bread, gaze fixed on the fire. With all the sweating she had done when she'd woken up, where she was sitting was the perfect temperature to cool her off. Fire to the front, the heat stinging her eyes, and at her back the snow that inevitably would show up every time Elsa had to run off somewhere to feel sorry for herself.

The thought made her choke around the lump of half-chewed bread in her mouth. She tried to keep it in, knew Elsa would start once she did, but of course there they were; the tears that she simply couldn't keep in recently. She really was Elsa's sister. She swallowed her bread, and the next breath she dragged in was a hoarse, half-whoop, but it didn't stop her from angrily stuffing the last of the bun into her mouth. The room kept getting colder, crackling and popping at what she knew would be layers and pillars and spikes of ice. At least she couldn't hear Elsa crying through it.

She didn't even bother containing the sob. Why should she, at this point? Self-loathing and regret coursed through her, shoving every cruel thought back in her face. She hated herself, how spiteful and unfair she was being. Hated how she was here again, curled up in front of a fire crying along with her sister, now about to choke to death on some stupid piece of bread while her stupid skull shot lances of agony through her brain. She wanted to go back to sleep. Where was that soporific bliss from last night? The dizziness that had taken all the hurt away from her?

As ever, it took a while before she stood up, and longer after that before she could finally sob out, "I'm sorry," back at Elsa. When she turned the room was a jungle, thick spears of ice protruded from every surface of the room except the polite circle around her. Somewhere in the center, now that it had all settled, she could hear Elsa's wails from within.

"Elsa!" Anna called out again through her tears, "Elsa I'm sorry." It was stupid, Anna thought as she started picking her way through the ice towards her sister, Elsa couldn't even hear her earlier thoughts. But she needed an apology all the same, for everything. Because it was all unfair, and someone needed to say it to her.

Anna finally got a grip on the table, and started shimmying alongside it over the glassy floor. There was a clearer path to Elsa here, and now she could see her with her white knuckled grip on the nightgown she hadn't changed out of, rocking back and forth, her cries strained through gritted teeth.

Anna couldn't hug her, when she finally got to Elsa. Maybe she'd never be able to again, but for now she could at least take her hand, so she did and held on even when Elsa tried to flinch away. Elsa looked up, something beyond sorrow and fear in her eyes, at her shivering little sister.

"Anna, I-" Elsa began, but Anna cut her off because she already knew what she had to say.

"It's not your fault." Anna pressed Elsa's hand to her chest, hugging the only part of her she could. It wasn't forgiveness, but it was all she had.

"It's not your fault."

* * *

><p>It was bad. Marie could see it in Elsa's eyes from the intermittent glances she took while she packed. The afternoon sun shone brightly through the high castle window, something Marie knew she'd miss almost as much as the way it lit up the queen's hair and seemed to make her skin glow with youthful energy. Most days, at any rate...<p>

"You'll be well then?" Elsa asked, her voice tired and frayed, from where she leaned against the door-frame, "there'll be no qualms with the nunnery taking you back?"

Marie smiled at the worry in Elsa's voice. "You're a thoughtful creature, Elsa, but I think your sister may have neglected to tell you just how much my retainer was." She wasn't sure if Elsa's wince was from her dread of viewing the bookkeeping or at the mention of the princess, so she kept talking to brush past it. "I will be comfortably housed in my own residence and shall want for quite little, don't you worry for me. Now, will _you_ be alright?"

Elsa came out of her apprehensive facial expression to flash Marie a weak smile, the first one she'd made in a long time. "No," she admitted, "no, I daresay I won't."

"You know, I don't have to leave," Marie said, pausing in her chore to gauge Elsa's reaction. "If ever there were a time for you to need a friend, it would be now, and I certainly don't dislike it here."

"God it's tempting," Elsa breathed wistfully, closing her eyes, "it's so tempting but Marie, I...please understand that I enjoyed our time together, I truly did, but..."

"But you're a queen," Marie finished, making Elsa's eyes open back up, "and I'm the former wife of a baron, and we'd have nothing between us but awkward pauses and fulfilling sex."

"No," Elsa started, but her shoulders sagged, "well, yes, but...but there's something...more, that I can't ever put my finger on but it's there and it hurts, and it hurts almost like the way it does with Anna but...not less, but stifled." She looked up at Marie with wet eyes, and in that moment, as best as she was able, Marie understood. Maybe even more than Elsa did.

"You know," she said, stuffing the last pair of leggings into her bags and fastening them, "if it'd been different-a different time, a different place, a different world even..." after that even she didn't know how to say what she needed to say so she took the steps needed to find herself in front of Elsa and drew her into one last, deep kiss.

And even though the door was open and it was the middle of the day, Elsa clung on and kissed back.

"I'm going to miss you just the same, you know," Elsa said when they broke apart and Marie was back to hauling her bags out the door.

"I know you will," Marie replied with a saucy smile, but something in Elsa's face made her recant. "Fine, I'll miss you too."

"Better," Elsa said, falling into step beside her as they made their way down the hall. "What kind of place is it you were thinking of moving into? I can't say I know much about what the options are for property in Arendelle."

"Well, I've been considering something overlooking the fjord."

"Ah, so you _are_ planning on staying in Arendelle." That earned Elsa a quick giggle, one of the many she'd keep safe in her heart for later.

"Not too far, I'm sure. Perhaps I'll even visit from time to time...?"

Elsa turned to Marie, stopping just before a side entrance to the castle. "I would like that, Marie. My doors will always be open for you. If you ever need anything..."

Marie grinned, sneaking one last adoring look at her queen before turning away to open the castle door and face the world once again. "Then I suppose it's not really goodbye, Elsa," she said, and trotted off into the sunlight.

Elsa watched her go from where she stood in the remainder of the door's shadow.

Not really goodbye, she told herself, as her friend shrunk away into the distance.

She could believe that.

* * *

><p><strong>It's been a riveting holiday season everyone, and now I'm back with a shittier course load than ever! To make matter worse, between this and Little Comforts I've basically reached the end of what I've got planned for these fics, and it's gonna probably be another substantial wait before I'm able to get going again. Hopefully, though, once that happens things will be moving my usual pace.<strong>

**In other news, Marie's gone! I did hint at it in the prologue, and while she did end up being like 5x more of a character than I ever thought she'd be, she still had to go. I'm sort of caught between feeling bad for everyone who thought she'd matter and laughing my ass off because this is a PwP and nobody cares anyways.**

**Cheers 'till (way) later folks**


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